On June 4th, my best friend and business partner was diagnosed with stage 4B
pancreatic cancer. We are all too aware of the grim prognosis of this type of
cancer, but he has been making the rounds and considering some pallitive
chemotherapy.

The diagnosis was made based on an MRCP imaging test which showed a 3cm tumor
in the exocrine pancreas and a similar sized tumor in the liver. There was also
a suspicious spot in the lung which hasn't been investigated further.

The day after he was given the "death sentence", a stent was installed to open
up the pancreatic and bile duct, and a brush biopsy was taken of the pancreatic
duct.

As he lives in the NYC area, he made an appointment for evaluation at Sloan
Kettering. Yesterday, in preparation for the evaluation, the doc at Sloan
Kettering called asking for the results of the brush biopsy, which was not in
with the earlier diagnostic results. He made some calls and got the results of
the biopsy, which, to our puzzlement, was unambiguously negative -- "no
malignacy found, normal glandular tissue present."

The doctors seem determined to tell him as little as possible, but have
scheduled a needle biopsy for Monday. The doctor did mention the "slight"
possibility that the pancreatic tumor was a secondary tumor and that the
primary cancer may be something other than pancreatic. While we are still sure
we are looking at a terminal mestatized cancer, if it isn't pancreatic it would
be good news, albeit in a minor sort of way.

The one question I have not been able to get answered has to do with the
general accuracy of brush biopsies in this type of cancer. Is a brush biopsy
likely to come back with a false negative? We don't want to raise anyone's
hopes unnecessarily, but if it is considered a highly accurate test we wouldn't
mind seeing a ray of hope break through the clouds for a bit.