Beating The Odds

Norton and her husband, Bill, were, of course, frightened by the diagnosis. “It is very difficult going from a very healthy, fit, active person to being told you have pancreatic cancer, seemingly overnight,” she says. Worse yet was the knowledge that this form of cancer is particularly dangerous. “Everything I had heard about pancreatic cancer was that it seems to be a death sentence,” she says.

Though the lifetime risk for pancreatic cancer is 1.5 percent, according to the American Cancer Society, and it accounts for about three percent of all cancers in the U.S., it is also responsible for about seven percent of all cancer deaths. It is difficult to treat because it is impossible to detect at an early stage, the way that early- stage breast cancer may be found by a mammogram. By the time any symptoms are noticed, the cancer is likely to have spread to other parts of the body.

However, for a subset of patients — about 15 percent, Dr. Dong says — the cancer has not spread, and those patients who are otherwise healthy and relatively young may be eligible for a complicated operation known as the Whipple procedure (named for the first American surgeon to perform the operation). Norton was one of those fortunate few and was deemed a good candidate for the procedure by Westchester Medical Center’s tumor board, which reviews all cancer cases to plan out the best possible course of treatment.

But because MidHudson’s expert staff includes surgeons like Dr. Dong, combined with the state-of-the-art surgical technology available there, Norton was able to have this complex surgery close to home. “MidHudson has all the necessary equipment,” Dr. Dong says. “It is very unique for a community hospital to be able to accommodate this complicated surgery.”

Norton was far from Dr. Dong’s first Whipple patient. “We felt confident in him, in his experience performing this procedure and in his communication and willingness to talk about the details of the situation.”

The surgery was done just three days after her initial diagnosis. “I spent Sunday thinking I needed to get my affairs in order,” Norton says, still emotional several months later. But she credits the nurses and staff in the ICU and the recovery floor for helping her through this difficult time. “They were on top of everything,” she says. “When I was having a really bad day, a nurse stayed and spent time with me. I really appreciate that. Given that being in a hospital is never a fun thing, this experience was as good as it could have been.”