In the News
Family takes up Craig’s cause
Relatives of man who succumbed to pancreatic cancer helping others
By JOHN GILLIS Health Reporter for the Chronicle Herald
Tue. Jul 15 - 5:23 AM
Craig Schurman Condon, an active healthy man of 63, had just returned from a dream vacation to the Yukon when he began to show signs of illness.
First he had acid reflux. Then one day he woke up with jaundice.
Tests ruled out causes like hepatitis. Then came the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Two days later, the Porters Lake man had an extensive operation called the Whipple procedure that involves the removal of parts of five organs.
His daughter, Stefanie Condon-Oldreive, said the family turned to the Internet to find out more about the disease, the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada.
"As we learned the seriousness of the cancer, we were shocked that there weren’t more resources for Canadians out there," she said recently.
Mr. Condon wanted to do something to support research into the disease and share information with others.
But he never got out of the hospital. He died in September 2006, eight weeks after his diagnosis.
His family set up a fund called Craig’s Cause to support research and a website, craigscause.ca, to share information.
"Since then, we’re being contacted by people all over Canada that have found us on the web just by Googling ‘pancreatic cancer,’ " Ms. Condon-Oldreive said. "This is kind of his legacy."
The website has become a hub for Canadians dealing with pancreatic cancer. It includes contact information for experienced specialists across the country, questions for people to ask their doctors, the stories of others dealing with the disease and a discussion forum.
Ms. Condon-Oldreive said that forum has helped people connect with others in their area to support one another in dealing with the disease.
Pancreatic cancer has among the poorest survival rates among cancers. Five years after diagnosis, only six per cent of people diagnosed with the disease are still living.
"It’s such a minimal prognosis . . . that patients and caregivers really don’t have time to respond before they’re faced with their loved one dying," Ms. Condon-Oldreive said. "I think a lot of patients and caregivers are just left shell-shocked."
The site also allows users to submit questions to Dr. Michele Molinari, a Halifax surgeon with expertise in treating pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Molinari, who works at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, said he thinks the Craig’s Cause website is very helpful to people seeking information.
He noted pancreatic cancer doesn’t have the same high public profile or large research community as diseases like breast cancer, which is much more common but usually much more curable.
The pancreas is a small organ located near the back of the abdomen that produces enzymes and hormones that help with digestion. The cancer often grows without causing any symptoms and its proximity to other organs means it can spread before it is detected.
The cancer also tends to be quite resistant to treatment, unlike tumours in some other parts of the body.
Dr. Molinari said traditional treatments like chemotherapy and surgery have stalled, with little improvement in success rates in recent decades.
"We are still not gaining a lot of ground in pancreatic cancer," he said.
There’s some hope doctors may be able to control pancreatic cancer better in the future by unravelling the role of cancer stem cells. But that research is in its early stages, he said.
Funds raised by Craig’s Cause are supporting two projects Dr. Molinari hopes will make a difference for those living with pancreatic cancer and those who might be at risk of developing the disease.
He’s studying what treatments patients choose when they’re able to evaluate their options thoroughly.
Dr. Molinari also hopes to develop a registry that would help to predict who is at risk of developing pancreatic cancer. In some cases, the disease seems to have a genetic basis.
Ms. Condon-Oldreive hopes to be able to fund more research across Canada with the money raised through Craig’s Cause.
The event, like the website, is run by volunteers and has no overhead, so all the money raised goes into the fund.
Information and registration is available at craigscause.ca.
(jgillis@herald.ca)
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