Jeff Vanderkin

Jeff and his wife, Leigh, were heading home from Philadelphia after spending the 2023 Thanksgiving holiday with their daughter and son-in-law when Jeff started experiencing some slight discomfort to the left of his navel during the nine-hour drive. He thought he might be dealing with gas or a kidney stone, as he’d had a kidney stone already about a year prior. When the discomfort continued and remained in the same place for a couple of weeks, Jeff second-guessed it stemming from gas or indigestion. At the urging of his daughter, a nurse, he scheduled an appointment with his doctor.

Jeff’s blood tests revealed high lipase levels, which can indicate problems within the pancreas, like pancreatitis. His doctor ordered a CT scan, which revealed a “hypodense” area on the pancreas. Concerned, the doctor then ordered an MRI, revealing a tumor in the area in question.

Jeff’s PCP acknowledged that the tumor was likely cancerous and referred him to a surgeon for a second opinion. The surgeon said she could take out the tumor, although they weren’t yet sure whether it was, in fact, cancerous, and wanted to do a biopsy first. Due to a backlog, though, Jeff would have to wait six to eight weeks for a biopsy.

“That was concerning,” Jeff said. “If this was cancer, I didn’t like the sound of waiting eight weeks to find out.”

While contemplating their next moves, Jeff and Leigh kept busy by hiking, praying and speaking with friends, one of whom was a former emergency room doctor at Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Froedtert Hospital. The friend put Jeff in touch with two former colleagues, Dr. Doug Evans and Dr. Ben George, and urged him to get in to see them.

“They’re the best there is,” the friend had said. “That’s where you need to be.”

Jeff sent his scans to Froedtert and got in quickly for an appointment. A biopsy followed promptly, which confirmed what Jeff’s care team already suspected – he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of pancreatic cancer. The good news was, because of his doctors’ diligence, he received this news six weeks earlier than he would have had he waited for a biopsy at the first hospital.

“They really cared,” Jeff said. “They understood the urgency of the situation.”

A PET scan showed that the cancer had also spread to Jeff’s lymph nodes and liver, with the metastases leading to a Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

“It was a double-punch in one week,” Jeff said. “First, I got a cancer confirmation, and then they told me it wasn’t curable. Instead, they wanted to improve quality of life for whatever remained.”

Dr. George started Jeff on four months of chemotherapy using FOLFIRINOX, a strong combination of cancer drugs. While he’d prepared himself for a long, brutal chemo process, that didn’t end up coming to fruition. Instead, Jeff experienced only minimal side effects, finding that he needed extra sleep and developed minor neuropathy and cold sensitivity. He was, however, able to maintain a relatively normal lifestyle while on chemo and would windsurf, sail and otherwise stay active and busy amid treatment.

“Part of me felt bad – some people were really struggling,” Jeff said, of watching others undergo chemo at the same time he did. He noted that, while the chemo killed his tumor, it didn’t have significant effects on him otherwise, which he credits in part to his strong faith network and the many people he had praying for him from all over the world.

“I had a peace about the whole thing – I knew where I was going when I’d die,” he said. “I was trusting God. I don’t know if my lack of worrying helped, but it might have!”

Jeff underwent genetic testing right before starting chemo, with the tests revealing that he had the BRCA2 gene, which can increase the likelihood of developing certain cancers (his children and siblings also had genetic testing and did not have the BRCA2 gene mutation). However, in some cases, having this gene mutation can also help steer treatment decisions or make someone eligible for certain targeted therapies that might otherwise remain out of reach.