Update: Patrick Swayze has died from pancreatic cancer. After the two year battle with the most debilitating form of cancer to have, Patrick Swayze has passed away. Swayze had felt the time was coming, and went home to be with his family and close friends. Recent photos of the Dirty Dancing star portrayed him as sickly, but in high spirits at his local paraphernalia shop.
In June, Swayze’s tv show “The Beast” was canceled after his doctors had told him that his cancer was spreading throughout his body and to his liver. But this dancing fool was never one to let illness or injury bring him down for long. In 1997 Swayze broke both of his legs while filming the movie “Letters From A Killer,” and in 2000 he was involved in a scare while flying his twin-engine plane.
Patrick Swayze was 57-years-old.
As a health care 2.0 company, the No Insurance Club is always on top of Twitter and Facebook. Mostly Twitter, however, since we’re all kind of obsessed with the social media marketing value that this amazing platform offers. And for a healthcare company to regain and establish some broken trust with recession-plagued and healthcare damaged American’s, it takes more than just an email and newsletter now and then. These days, it takes constant communication and conversation about the touchy healthcare topics.
But, I digress. “Patrick Swayze is alive and well,” said Swayze’s publicist earlier today. You’re probably wondering why Swayze’spublicist would have to make a public announcement to proclaim his well-being. The thing with social media is that Joe-Smo, sitting in his office at work, doesn’t usually check all the facts before retweeting or reposting an interesting topic. And before you know it, Patrick Swayze is dead and the Twitter world is grieving. It’s pretty morbid when you think about it.
The good news is Patrick Swayze is “alive and well,” the bad news is that he still has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. So, the No Insurance Club wanted to take this opportunity to explain the facts of pancreatic cancer, and shed some light on what Swayze is going through.
Pancreatic cancer is considered Stage IV if it has spread to distant locations in the body, such as the liver, lungs, or adjacent organs including the stomach, spleen, and/or the bowel. Sometimes it can only be determined that a pancreatic cancer is in Stage IV once surgery is completed. – Women&CancerMag
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer comes with rough odds, and even rougher treatment. Patrick Swayze, for example, did not get diagnosed until the cancer had spread throughout his body. He, as well as most pancreatic sufferers, opted to go through chemo treatment, combined with an experimental drug called vatalanib.
Experimental drugs are always an option, and there are always new treatments that doctors and patients are considering. Currently, according to WebMD, there are over 100 experimental drugs on the market for treating pancreatic cancer. Swayze, as well as all other cancer patients, took the time and did the research before reaching a treatment decision.
