ST. LOUIS (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest form of cancer. The killer made headlines this year after actor Pactrick Swayze talked about his battle. Thirty-eight thousand people will be diagnosed with the disease this year and 34,000 will die. A medical breakthrough is giving people a fighting chance at survival.

Patrick Swayze is one of many stars who've battled pancreatic cancer. Michael Landon, comedian Jack Benny and Luciano Pavarotti also fell victim to it. Treatment hasn't changed much since Joan Crawford died in 1977. Rich Luze is not only giving the rich and famous hope, but everyone who is diagnosed with it.

"Each day is very, very precious," Luze, a pancreatic cancer survivor, told Ivanhoe.

Luze beat the odds. Four percent of pancreatic cancer patients survive five years after being told they have it.

"Typically at the time of diagnosis, it has already spread to the point where there aren't treatment options," David Linehan, M.D., a pancreatic surgeon at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., told Ivanhoe.

Luze became one of the first to use an aggressive drug treatment to fight his cancer. Standard treatment consists of surgery and radiation. Oncologists at the Washington University School of Medicine are doing that and adding chemotherapy, along with the immune stimulator drug interferon.

"The treatment is really a marathon, not a sprint," Dr. Linehan said. "It takes a long time, and just when people are starting to feel good from the surgery, you start chemotherapy and radiation."

Fighting it can take its toll. Blood counts fall. Infection risk is high. After three years on treatment, 41 percent of the patients are still alive compared to 20 percent of patients not in the clinical trial.

"It's my feeling that everyone with pancreatic cancer should be enrolled in a clinical trial because standard treatments just don't work," Dr. Linehan said.

Six years after diagnosis, Luze is cancer-free. He says the trial was a gift that gave him more time with his grandson

One out of three pancreatic cancer patients can tolerate this aggressive treatment. Luze was able to not only handle the treatment, but he didn't miss a day of work while he was on the drugs. The clinical trial is now moving into phase III, where doctors will work on making it less toxic and try to reduce side effects.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Judy Martin
Media Relations
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO
(314) 286-0105