Roger, a lawyer into startups and the venture capital scene and a sports enthusiast, hails from Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California. He discovered that he had pancreatic cancer in 2022.

Roger enjoys a very active lifestyle and strives to live a healthy life, but suddenly suspected he had cancer after his blood sugar increased and he started to lose weight. A liquid biopsy–a Galleri blood test by the healthcare firm GRAIL–revealed strong signals for certain types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. An MRI from the company Prenuvo found a mass on his pancreas, and a CT scan and tissue biopsy confirmed that he had stage 2 pancreatic cancer. 

Pancreatic cancer is often seen as incurable and fatal, but Roger refused to accept this. His take-charge attitude to his health led him to conduct extensive research into his illness. Being based in Silicon Valley also gave him access to excellent medical care, but his openness to cutting-edge medical treatments–as well as the urgency of his case–brought him further afield, including to Japan, where he got the first dose of an advanced cancer vaccine. 

Roger also made certain significant changes to his lifestyle, with an eye towards not only staying healthy, but also making his body as inhospitable to cancer cells as possible.

Roger is no longer on chemotherapy and undergoes follow-up protocols every 6 months. He shares his story to encourage cancer patients to be more assertive regarding their illnesses and overall health, to do their own research and seek out the best treatments available, to refuse to settle for “standard of care” treatment, and, lastly, to never give up hope. 

from:https://thepatientstory.com/patient-stories/pancreatic-cancer/roger-r/