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Mary K. Rabe
Written By: Debra Gelbart and Julia Brabant, updated January 202616-Year Pancreatic Cancer Survivor Mary K. Rabe Takes Life One Hour at a Time
When Mary K. Rabe rang the bell at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, it signaled the end of a an eight-year series of scans, tests and treatments for pancreatic cancer. About six years later, she found herself back in the doctor’s office to treat what she thought was a routine cold – and navigating a new health chapter she’d confront using the same humor, strength and resolve that had already seen her through her hardest years.
I was very blessed that I turned jaundiced…that’s how we found it. Usually, that means the end of the line, but it wasn’t for me.
Mary, who retired from a more than 40-year career as a school librarian in 2019, first developed concerning health symptoms in 2009, when her urine took on an orange hue and the whites of her eyes turned yellow, indicating jaundice. Her school district was offering employees comprehensive screening tests at the time, and the results of Mary’s test revealed her gallbladder was “sluggish.”
She soon had an endoscopic biopsy to learn more. She’d also developed pancreatitis, leading to a 10-day stay in the hospital. There, doctors formally diagnosed her with Stage 2 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
“I was very blessed that I turned jaundiced…that’s how we found it,” Mary said. “Usually, that means the end of the line, but it wasn’t for me.”
Mary began undergoing chemotherapy and continued treatment for about five months, when her care team determined she was a candidate for the Whipple procedure, a common – and intensive – surgery sometimes used to treat pancreatic cancer. During the 10-hour operation, surgeons removed about three dozen lymph nodes after identifying cancer in one of them.
The next few months were difficult, with Mary facing repeated infections and setbacks before resuming chemotherapy treatments for another five months. She then continued having regular checkups and scans, initially seeing her team every three months before spacing the visits out to every six months, and eventually, once a year.
“That was such a discouraging time,” Mary said. “I thought I was the only person in the world who had these recurring infections. But then I realized after I saw so many sick people in the hospital that I really shouldn’t complain, because I was still getting the chance to live my life.”
After about a decade of closely monitoring her condition, Mary got some good news. By December of 2017, her doctors were ready to release her from care. “And they didn’t release me to the morgue!” she joked. She rang the bell, enjoyed the moment and moved forward with her life, spending another few years working in the school library before retiring in 2019.
Mary made the most of the “bonus time” she was given, spending time with family and friends and participating in things she enjoyed, like playing tennis. Yet, by 2023, she began experiencing cold symptoms and saw her doctor for a steroid shot, hoping it would help her health improve ahead of a planned tennis match that weekend.
Mary’s doctor heard something unusual in Mary’s lungs during the visit and conducted an X-ray to learn more. While the cold ultimately resolved on its own, the X-ray’s results raised more questions, leading Mary’s care team to conduct a biopsy of the questionable area. The biopsy revealed the presence of lung cancer.
“I’d read that if you quit smoking for 15 years, you’re probably in the clear,” Mary said. “This happened 14 years after I quit.”
Mary returned to MD Anderson – now a familiar place – and surgeons removed the lower lobe of her lung, where the cancer was. She then underwent four rounds of chemotherapy delivered through a vein, as she did not, at the time, have a port, although doctors eventually placed one.
Around the same time, Mary’s husband, James, began experiencing health issues of his own. The pair decided to move to Katy, Texas, so they could better manage their care and day-to-day life.
The move prompted Mary to switch oncologists, and she also began having immunotherapy treatments, which seek to help her immune system recognize and fight any remaining cancer cells. She immediately felt at ease with her new oncologist and care team.
“He’s done everything in the world to keep me alive, and it’s working,” she said, of the oncologist.
By 2023, Mary’s medical team had identified three questionable nodules and were monitoring them closely. That same year, she took a tumble on the tennis court. When the rib injury she experienced failed to heal within a reasonable timeframe, doctors biopsied the area, revealing cancer metastasis. They treated the metastasis with five rounds of targeted radiation, and by 2024, Mary showed no sign of cancer.
Mary’s team continued close monitoring of the nodules, and she found out recently that two out of the three spots are cancerous. However, it appears the immunotherapy treatments are working as intended, with all three spots “encapsulated,” meaning they are contained and not spreading to surrounding tissue. She recently met with her radiation oncologist, and they came up with a plan to treat the remaining nodules with radiation therapy, which Mary will start soon.
“So, there it is,” Mary joked. “If you’re going to get cancer, you may as well get the two big ones.”
While Mary awaits word about her new treatment plan, she’s working on adjusting to her second move in a year – a major change for someone who previously occupied the same home for 50 years. When a house went up for sale near the home of her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, she couldn’t pass it up.
She’s also keeping an eye on emerging developments in pancreatic cancer care. Back in 2009, Mary noted, after her own diagnosis, doctors often performed surgery without having people undergo chemotherapy first. Nowadays, it’s becoming more common for oncologists to try to shrink tumors before surgery takes place, which may improve outcomes and expand options for people with pancreatic cancer. Mary also feels encouraged by ongoing efforts to pre-screen people who face an elevated risk of pancreatic cancer, hoping it might help others reap the benefits of early detection, like she did.
She also has some words of wisdom for others facing similar health hardships.
“Surround yourself with people who are going to be positive,” Mary said. “Not ‘You can do this,’ but ‘This is how we’re going to look at the next hour.’ You have to take teeny, tiny steps. When you have pancreatic cancer, you can’t look down the road six months. You have to take it by the hour.”
