Uniontown native wages battle against pancreatic cancer
As National Pancreatic Awareness Month is observed in November, a Virginia family with Uniontown roots is hoping to draw attention to this disease. “I hope we can get the message out,” said Bill Hutchinson, 67, of Culpeper, Va., who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on Nov. 3, 2008.
Hutchinson is a son of the late Walter and Mary Hutchinson of Uniontown and graduated from Uniontown High School in 1960 and California State College in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. He later earned a master’s degree in administration from the University of Virginia. He taught at several elementary schools in Virginia and retired as principal of Kilby Elementary in Prince William County.
Hutchinson has been married 42 years to Pattie D’Auria Hutchinson, also of Uniontown and a 1963 graduate of Uniontown High School. She is a daughter of Vince and Nancy D’Auria and niece of Uniontown pediatrician Dr. Thomas D’Auria.
The couple has two children, who also live in Culpeper: Melissa, a stay-at-home mother married to Brent Keith, who have two children, Emily, 7, and Hannah, 2; and Bill Jr., a lieutenant with the Manassas, Va., police, who is married to Erica and has two children, Garrett, 7, and Mia, 6.
“My Dad is the heart of our family,” said Melissa Keith.
The family has offered strong support to Hutchinson, who received his diagnosis several months after he first began experiencing stomach problems in March 2008. He saw a family doctor who thought it might be an ulcer, but when treatment didn’t work, Hutchinson went for further testing that revealed the pancreatic cancer. Family friends who work in the medical field directed Hutchinson to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., where he consulted with doctors. Because of distance, he was then directed to Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he has been involved in clinical trials.
Hutchinson explained his cancer is non-operable because it is wrapped around one of his blood vessels, but he said he was fortunate in that his cancer was found before it had spread. Lesions were recently detected on Hutchinson’s liver, but he is confident in the treatment he is undergoing for them, including a procedure where doctors will be using new technology called a CyberKnife.
Hutchinson said people know little about pancreatic cancer, but mostly familiar with it as the disease that killed actors Patrick Swayze and Michael Landon.
According to the Web site for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the pancreas is a 6-inch gland, located in the abdomen. Its functions include helping in digestion and the production of hormones, including insulin, which maintains the proper amount of sugar in the blood.
The organization reported pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. This year, 42,470 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States and 35,240 will die from the disease. Pancreatic cancer is one of the few cancers for which the survival rate has not improved substantially over the past 30 years. It is a leading cause of cancer death largely because there are no detection tools to diagnose the disease in its early stages when surgical removal of the tumor is still possible.
“There’s literally no early detection for pancreatic cancer. You can’t give a blood test and say we found these cells,” said Hutchinson, who had further testing at the insistence of his wife, whose best friend died of pancreatic cancer eight months before Hutchinson’s diagnosis.
Hutchinson and his family would like to see more research for pancreatic cancer.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network reported The National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent an estimated $87.3 million on pancreatic cancer research in 2008. That represented a mere 2 percent of the NCI’s estimated $4.8 billion cancer research budget for that year.
“Early detection of the disease could save thousands,” said Hutchinson. “There should be more research. You don’t think about it until it affects you or someone in your family.”
Hutchinson and Melissa Keith both noted that Erica Hutchinson, wife of Bill Hutchinson Jr., developed breast cancer a few years ago when she was pregnant but was able to be successfully treated.
They believe there should be more research into pancreatic cancer to help save more lives.
“It affects everyone,” said Melissa Keith. “I’ve met a 23-year-old man who was diagnosed with it three years ago and he has four children. I met a woman who was 81 and she has since passed.”
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network reported that pancreatic cancer may cause only vague symptoms that could indicate many different conditions within the abdomen or gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include pain (usually abdominal or back pain) weight loss, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), loss of appetite, nausea, changes in stool and diabetes.
The Hutchinson family hopes to bring attention to pancreatic cancer through their story and help others.
Melissa Keith said, “It’s not about Dad – it’s about other families going through this as well.”
For more information, visit online at www.pancan.org.