By Pam McGaffin

When Aaron Barrett started treatments at Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center in 2005, he had to be brought by ambulance and wheeled in on a stretcher.

Today, he is back to work, cycling for exercise and looking ahead.

That the 38-year-old Bellevue man is alive at all is something of a miracle. The average life expectancy after a diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer is three to six months.

His turnaround, and the improvement of half a dozen other pancreatic cancer patients at the Center, led to a clinical trial to test a promising new treatment protocol that involves smaller, more frequent doses of chemotherapy drugs that work better together than alone. Click here to read the abstract.

After Barrett first came to Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center in early 2005, his progress was measured in small milestones: sitting up on the side of the bed, standing with help, taking steps with a walker, then with a cane, then without a cane.

Oncologist Ben Chue, who devised the protocol for Aaron and the clinic's other pancreatic cancer patients, said the chemotherapy drugs he uses directly target the cancer tumors by starving them of the blood flow they need to grow.

"We are seeing shrinkage of tumors, reduction of pain and an increase in appetite in our pancreatic cancer patients," Dr. Chue says. "Aaron came to us having already completed treatment elsewhere. He was put on hospice to die. He literally came to us on a stretcher and now he's back at home and working."

Aaron says Dr. Chue took a risk in treating him.

"I was too far gone," he says. "But Dr. Chue is willing to seek out new methods of treatment. I'm extremely encouraged by his devotion to finding a cure."

Aaron was diagnosed in 2004 after going in to see his family doctor about what he thought was a digestion problem - his food didn't go all the way down.

A scan revealed a tumor pressing on his duodenum, a tube largely responsible for breaking down food in the small intestine. He underwent surgery to remove his gallbladder and relocate his duodenum (so he could eat normally), but the tumor had too many vessels in it to be safely removed.

Meanwhile, experts at five different hospitals tried to determine what type of cancer Aaron had, finally deciding to base his treatment on the worst case scenario of pancreatic cancer.

The pancreas is an oblong flattened gland deep in the abdomen that helps in the digestion of food. Because of its location, tumors often go undetected until they grow large enough to interfere with surrounding organs.

Because it is difficult to diagnose and treat, pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. This year, an estimated 32,000 Americans will be diagnosed with it and an equal number will die.

Those at greatest risk include cigarette smokers, people who are over the age of 50, those who have two or more relatives with pancreatic cancer, people of Ashkenazi or Jewish descent, and those who have certain genetic mutations or chronic pancreatitis.

Barrett, a young non-smoker, had none of those risk factors. He and his wife, Tiffany, both Ford Motor Company engineers at the time, were in the process of relocating here when he got sick.

Married three and a half years, they had planned to start a family once they settled. Instead, they were forced onto a medical roller coaster, what Tiffany refers in her journal to "a wickedly wild time with too many ups and downs."

For four and a half months, Aaron lived in hospitals with frequent moves to intensive care. Tiffany was right there with him, dealing with doctors and details and the very real possibility that she could lose her husband.

"He was gravely ill," she says. "But, instead of asking, 'Why me?' His attitude was, 'Okay, I have cancer. I have to be strong.'"

Aaron says his faith and "an extremely large support system" including his wife, family and extended church community helped him endure. "I never thought that I wasn't going to be here," he says.

A number of people and circumstances - a Web posting here, a name dropped there - pointed Aaron and Tiffany in the direction of Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center.

Aaron believes God guided them to the place where his recovery began.

The clinic was the first in the region to have oncologists working side by side with complementary care providers, including naturopaths, acupuncturists, masters of Chinese medicine and a mind-body social worker.

In addition to chemotherapy, Aaron received nutrition guidance and dietary supplements from naturopathic oncologist Mark Gignac and Chinese herbs and acupuncture from Chinese medical practitioner Darin Bunch to relieve pain and ease side effects.

He was able to go back home in 2006 and start working again in April 2007. An avid cyclist, he even did the Group Health MS Bike Tour to celebrate his return to health and life.

Battling cancer has given him a new perspective.

"Your temperament becomes even," he says. "You get stuck in traffic and it's no big deal. You're thankful for every single day that you have."


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