Matthew Rosenblum survived Stage IV pancreatic cancer | pancreatoduodenectomy | folfiinox | abraxane

DESCRIPTION

In today’s episode of the @CancerInterviews podcast, Matthew Rosenblum relives an arduous journey that led to his surviving Stage IV pancreatic cancer.  His journey began with bile duct obstruction jaundice and the subsequent removal of his gall bladder.  It was from an app on his phone that he learned he had cancer.  After two clashes with chemotherapy with folfirinox, and two surgeries, Matthew leads a healthy lifestyle and works to help others diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

In January 2021, Matthew began to experience the nasty symptoms of bile duct obstructive jaundice.  His urine became very dark and his stool became very light in color.  In addition, he suffered from severe itching all over, especially on his hands and feet. 

Matthew is from Hazel Park, Michigan, but in 2021, he was living by himself in Durham, North Carolina.  He hadn’t been there long and didn’t have a primary care provider.  So, he went to a local urgent care.  A nurse practitioner did some blood tests, and his liver enzymes were significantly elevated.  The nurse practitioner thought Matthew had a serrated liver, but he insisted it was something else.

Additional blood tests were run and when the results came back, the nurse practitioner said Matthew needed to go to an ER.  That’s where he underwent an endoscopic ultrasound, a CT and an MRI.  They saw a stricture in his bile duct, which is what caused the symptoms.  Doctors removed his gall bladder and told Matthew he should be fine. They didn’t know what was causing the symptoms, but sent Matthew home and said he shouldn’t be concerned.

However in March 2021, the symptoms returned.  Additional tests were run, and while Matthew was working at a grocery store, I received a call telling him he had adenocarcinoma, with little mention of his pancreas. 

He received another call from the surgeon who removed Matthew’s gall bladder, who said Matthew’s case had been referred to him because he was experienced with pancreatic cancer surgery, a pancreatoduodenectomy.  In May 2021, the attempted this procedure, which called for the removal of the affected part of the pancreas, roughly a third of Matt’s stomach, part of his colon, plus his gall bladder, after which his digestive system would be redesigned. 

However, once they went in they found a tumor on the head of his pancreas.  That was what was pinching his bile duct and the cancer had spread throughout his gut.  He learned that when pancreatic cancer has spread, the surgery isn’t done because the outcomes tend to be worse. 

They went ahead and made an incision from his pelvis to his navel.  The surgeon said because of Matthew’s genetic mutation, that is why Matthew, at age 32, was diagnosed roughly 40 years younger than most who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  The surgeon also said there was a good possibility Matthew could be back in a year for a similar surgery. 

They gave him a few weeks for the incision t heal, then put Matthew on a chemotherapy cocktail with folfirinox, which as chemo cocktails go, is the kitchen sink.  The folfirinox was nasty, but by May 2021, the tumor shrank; yet in September, the tumor had grown and spread to Matthew’s liver.  That inspired doctors to put Matthew on a different chemotherapy regimen, this time with gencitabine and abraxane.  He found this cocktail to be livable.  Slowly, his quality of life improved enough for doctors to attempt a second surgery in March 2022. 

The spots on Matthew Rosenblum’s liver disappeared, the tumor became non-viable, all of the lymph nodes were good, and since then, there has been no evidence of metastatic recurrence.  With a redsigned digestive system, he has to relearn how to eat, but has done so.  Matthew is very thankful for the life he has, even if some days are worse than others.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://www.pancan.org

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton; One of the fastest-moving types of cancer is pancreatic cancer.  Our guest on this episode of the Cancer Interviews podcast has survived Stage IV pancreatic cancer.  He is Matthew Rosenblum of Hazel Park, Michigan.  I’m your host, Bruce Morton, here to share with you Matthew’s story.  So, here he is and Matthew, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Matthew Rosenblum: Thank you so much for having me, Bruce.

BM: It is our custom to start off by learning more about guest, and their life away from cancer, so if you would, Matthew, tell us a bit about yourself, where you are from, what you do for work, and what you do for fun.

MR: I was born in New York, the North Shore of Long Island.  When I was a kid I moved to South Florida, a town called Jupiter.  I went to school at Florida State and got a degree in Geography, then went on to the University of Kentucky, did my graduate work there.  I have bounced around a lot in the last few years, and now live in Hazel Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.  In terms of work, in a former life, I was PhD candidate and teacher at the University of Kentucky, but I have not worked for several years.  Pancreatic cancer, metastatic pancreatic cancer is a disability, and you are not expected to return to work.  I hadn’t worked for two years, but I am now back on the job market.  I want to return to the professional world and am really hoping in cancer advocacy, patient-centered cancer advocacy.  For fun, I read a lot.  I like to read.  I also like to watch true crime documentaries.  I like a dimly-lit bar and good conversation.

BM: As for your cancer journey, for each of we survivors, there was that time in which we thought we were in good health, until something happened that seemed abnormal, and that abnormality led to a diagnosis of cancer.  For you, how did that happen?

MR: This all started in early 2021, January 2021.  I had moved to Durham, North Carolina.  COVID was going on, and I had lost my job, and luckily, a friend of mine in Durham, was having a surprise COVID baby.  He needed help and I needed a place to live.  So, I went there to help him out.  Then two months later, the business closed, as so many did during the pandemic.  His family left and went up to New England.  I stayed behind in Durham.  I was in a strange place, pretty much by myself under stressful circumstances.  For about two months, I started to experience the symptoms of obstructive jaundice.  You notice that your urine becomes very dark, your stool becomes very light in color.  In my case, but not in every case, my skin itched quite severely.  It was always at night, and it was the bottoms of my feet and the bottoms of my hands, two places that arte difficult to scratch.  This lasted for about two nights.  At first, I had no idea what was happening.  Before the first night, I had had a few beers, and thought to myself that I am over 30 now and maybe it’s just a hangover.  So, I drank Gatorade and tried to recoup a little bit.  The symptoms just kept getting worse, and the itching, that was the closest I had ever felt to torture.  It was horrible.  That first night, in order to get to sleep, I got into the bathtub and turned up the temperature as hot as I could stand it and held my hands and feet under it as long as I could because it would numb the sensation.  As a 32-year-old, I had had some experience with a health issue.  I have a chronic illness.  I have Crohn’s Disease, but nothing like this.  I knew it wasn’t good.  This itching, I was terrified.  I had never felt anything like that before.  I was very scared, and went to urgent care because I had only been in town a very short time.  I had not yet gotten a doctor.  At the urgent care, the nurse practitioner did some blood tests, and my liver enzymes, they were elevated, significantly elevated.  These are symptoms that are similar to a serrated liver, and I told her this was something else.  That’s how it started with severe itching, the pale stool and very, very dark urine.

BM: We’re confident you’ll be able to learn some tips and tools to help you through your personal cancer journey, but first we’d like to invite you to please give us a ‘like,’ leave a comment or review below and share this story with your friends. Kindly click on the Subscribe button and click on the bell icon, so you’ll be notified when we release our next cancer interview.  And if you or a loved one are facing a cancer diagnosis, please click on the link in the description and Show Notes below to check out our free guide, “The Top Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I First Got Cancer.”

Matthew, we’d like to get to that juncture.  When you were diagnosed, how did you handle this obviously terrible news?

MR: In my case as in so many other cases with pancreatic cancer, it took a long time to get to a diagnosis, especially because of my age.  The average pancreatic cancer patient is around 70 years old and at this point I was 32.  When my blood results came back, the nurse practitioner calls me and said I needed to go an ER.  They did an endoscopic ultrasound, CT, MRI.  They saw a stricture in my bile duct, which is what caused the symptoms.  If there is a stricture, that means the bile cannot move through to help digest your food, so your body deposits it elsewhere, such as in your urine.  Evidently, in my case, the bile cells spread to my skin which is what caused the itching.  The reason my stool was white was because bile is what gives your stool its brown color.  Anyway, they said there was a stricture in my bile duct.  We don’t really know what it is and what’s causing it.  After some more tests, they sent me home and said I shouldn’t be concerned.  I have Crohn’s Disease, there is possibly an autoimmune explanation.  Finally, several weeks later, they decide they are going to take my gall bladder out, then told me I should be fine.  Now we are in March 2021 and my symptoms are back.  I get really freaked out, and they put a stent in. At that point nobody was talking about cancer.  The gastroenterologist told me I didn’t have cancer.  Then two hours later, we get additional test results.  At this point I am working at a grocery store, I get a call with test results on my phone and it said adenocarcimona.  I did not know that word, but eventually I learned what it meant, and that is how I found out, but nobody ever mentioned my pancreas, except for a few offhand remarks about its size.  In my medical records, it said that suspected ampullary or pancreatic adenocarcinoma; but I remember at the time, the app on my phone told me I had cancer, the surgeon who removed my gall bladder called me and said the case had been referred back to him because he was experienced in dealing with pancreatic cancer surgery, a pancreatoduodenectomy.  He called me on his personal cellphone while he was at a conference to put me at ease.  He first thought it was ampullary cancer.  He thought that if it was cancer, it should be a small thing, and he should be able to get this.  He was not concerned that I was going to die.  His suggestion was that I had a ‘less deadly’ form of cancer than what it turned out I actually had.  In any case, because of the ampulla, a part of your digestive system, is so close to the pancreas, they do the same surgery for it.  Four days later, I was in his office doing the pre-surgery song and dance, and a few days after that in early May of 2021, they attempted a pancreatoduodenectomy, which is where they remove part of your affected pancreas, roughly a third of your stomach, part of your colon, your gall bladder and then they basically redesign your digestive system.  So, I go in for the surgery, they open me up, they find that there is a tumor on the head of my pancreas.  That was what was pinching my bile duct, and that it had spread throughout my gut.  With pancreatic cancer, and once it has spread, they don’t generally don’t do the surgery on you because the surgery because the outcomes tend to be worse for the patient, at least according to conventional scientific wisdom.  I woke up in the hospital and I could tell that something was wrong.  The doctor came in, my sister came in, I could tell this was not good.  He gave me the news and by this time I knew enough about pancreatic cancer to know I was not in a good position.  I was in the hospital for seven days because they cut me from the bottom to the bottom of my belly button.  The entire time I ate chicken fingers to breakfast, lunch and dinner and watched all of the Harry Potter movies over and over and didn’t shower, watched the Real Housewives and just did whatever I wanted.  For the most part, the nurses let me do what I wanted.  Anyway, the chances of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer under the age of 40 are extremely low.  I had to adjust to the idea that, being a 32-year-old, I was still pretty young and still had most of my life ahead of me and I had to reconcile myself to what was coming.

BM: If you would, Matthew, tell us about the ensuing weeks and months.  How did you go through everyday life.  What could you do and what could you not do?

MR: After my surgery, there was a suspicion that I had a genetic abnormality mutation, that as a person of Eastern European descent is pretty common.  My sister had it, my mother died of breast cancer at age 56.  He said because I had this genetic mutation, because I was roughly 40 years younger than the average patient and comparatively healthy, he said that this is a mean cancer, but he thought in a year after treatment, we could be back trying this surgery again.  As a person who has this mutation, it also increases the chance of developing pancreatic cancer.  At this point, he said I would be doing chemotherapy for a year, and those therapies because of all the research done for breast cancer, there are more options for you.  He said my case could be a unique one.  My oncologist was not as bullish.  He came to visit me in the hospital, and they would let me heal, they would give me a few weeks so that the incision heals, and then I would start a chemotherapy cocktail called Folfirinox, and in about two weeks, I started on it. 

As chemo cocktails go, Fulfirinox is the kitchen sink.  All treatment for cancer is bad, but Fulfirinox is awful.  Before I started chemo, to shrink my tumor to see if they could do the surgery at some point in the future, I was fine.  Between the aborted surgery and chemo, I lived a regular life for the most part.  I remember coming home from the first session in May 2021 and thinking this isn’t a big deal.  So many people when they are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, for a variety of reasons, they don’t last very long.  After that first chemo treatment, not much later, chemo hit me like a ton of bricks.  Because of my age and health, it took a little longer for me, but eventually chemo hit me like a ton of bricks.  At this point, though, I am a single guy living in Durham, North Carolina.  My best friend moved to Senegal to Durham to take care of me.  Fulfirinox really did a number on me as it does for so many people on the nerves in my hands and on my feet.  The neuropathy was pretty bad.  The first scan they took in May 2021 they said the tumor shrank a little bit.  However, by September 2021, they said the radiology report showed the tumor had grown and spread to my liver.  I will never forget that day because it was that day when I told my friend I don’t think I can do this anymore.  I couldn’t even get out of a chair by myself at this point.  I had lost about 50 pounds. That was the day when they said the chemo wasn’t working and I was relieved.  I couldn’t take it anymore, and my doctor said they would try something else.  So, they put me on a different cocktail of Gemcitabine, Abraxane and one other that I cannot remember.  That was more livable.  I begrudgingly accepted this.  All my friends, my little sister, they all wanted me to live.  I kind of wanted to give up at that point because things were not moving in the right direction, but went on this revised cocktail because of them, and I am glad I did.  It was livable.  I was not incredibly nauseous.  I could count on four hands the number of times I threw up through a year with this new cocktail   I was mostly just nauseous, but stopped working eventually.  From May 2021 to September 2021, I worked 40 hours a week on my feet.  I wore special gloves because of the nerve damage in my hands if I was going to touch something cold or hot.  I worked until I literally could not work anymore.  My quality of life was bad at first.  I was very depressed and Fulfirinox is thankless.  It is horrible.  Behind all the itching, it was the second-worst part of my journey.  But eventually, my quality of life improved significantly.  After chemo, I would wait a day or two and get on an airplane.  At the time, I thought the chances of my surviving are so small anyway that I should travel when I wanted.  The long and short of it is, my quality of life was bad at first, but it got better.

BM: You had mentioned how you will soon be looking for work after being on disability.  Is it fair to say your quality of life is much better now?

MR: After I started the new chemo cocktail, my scan results at the three-month mark, my oncologist said if my next scan is just as good, he was going to suggest that we try surgery again.  The spots on my liver disappeared and in March 2022 after my third such scan, we revisited surgery.  They cut me open, the tumor appeared non-viable, the biopsies were good, all of the lymph nodes they checked were good.  There hasn’t been evidence of metastatic recurrence since then.  Learning to live after this surgery and after the trauma of being told for a year that you are going to die, and then being told I am not going to die, the emotional whiplash of that, learning to eat again because they have redesigned your digestive system, dealing with the aftereffects of chemo, the nerve damage, I am thankful to be here.  I am tremendously thankful to be here, and I am tremendously thankful for the life that I have.  I live a pretty full life now, but it was not an easy road, it is not an easy road.  There are some days in which it is easier than others.  In general, things are pretty good. 

BM: Fantastic.  Our guest is Matthew Rosenblum of Hazel Park, Michigan, and Matthew, we want to thank for you being with us.  This is really an inspirational story for anyone who watches or listens and has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, because pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, these are two cancers in which in many instances, when people are diagnosed, they are already in a late stage, and that means a huge hill to climb.  So, Matthew, we want to thank you very much for sharing your inspirational story with us, and thanks for being a guest on Cancer Interviews. 

MR: Yes, sir.  Thank you so much.

BM: And that is going to wrap up this episode of the Cancer Interviews podcast, and we will say as we do every time when we conclude that if you or a loved one are on a cancer journey, you are not alone.  There are people out there like Matthew, who have words that can inform and inspire.  So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: www.pancan.org

SHOW NOTES

TITLE:  Matthew Rosenblum, Stage Four Pancreatic Cancer Survivor – Hazel Park, Michigan, USA

What began as an obstruction of Matthew Rosenblum’s bile duct became a diagnosis of Stage Four pancreatic cancer, of which he learned via his cellphone.  After two clashes with chemotherapy and two surgical procedures, Matthew leads a healthy lifestyle.  Going forward, he wants to be an advocate for others diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  This is his story.

Additional Resources:

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: www.pancan.org

Time Stamps:

04:54 Matthew says he began to experience an obstruction of his bile duct.

09:55 Says there was a lengthy process before his cancer diagnosis.

12:31 Matthew had his gall bladder removed.

14:50 It was from an app on his phone that he learned he had cancer.

18:02 Describes his surgical procedure.

24:44 Matthew says his Folfirinox chemo cocktail was brutal.

27:30 Said he strongly considered terminating his chemo treatment.

33:35 Matthew says he underwent a second surgical procedure, which yielded good news.

KEYWORDS (tags):

pancreatic cancer

bile duct obstructive jaundice

serrated liver

endoscopic ultrasound

bruce morton

folfirinox

pancreatoduodenectomy

matthew rosenblum

gemcitabine

Abraxane

chemotherapy