Thrill Seeker Takes Leap of Faith in Fight Against Pancreatic Cancer
When Manny Garcia from Miami started to feel nauseous with severe abdominal pain on a trip to Germany, he blamed it on beer and schnitzel. But when he learned he had stage four pancreatic cancer, the young skydiver and base jumper knew he had to take a leap of faith.
“I’m just laying at home with a heating pad over my abdomen to soothe this sharp, stabbing pain. I’m throwing up more often,” Garcia said.
His family brought him to Peter Hosein, M.D., a medical oncologist specializing in pancreatic cancer at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami UHealth System.
“Manny was 26 years old when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” Hosein said. “And we need to emphasize that he had a rare type of pancreatic cancer called a high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma. His tumor started in the pancreas, and it had spread to the liver. Eventually it had spread to his bones and his brain.”
Because Garcia had a rare form of pancreatic cancer, Hosein was not only able to treat him with chemotherapy but immunotherapy, which made a huge difference in attacking the tumors.
Immunotherapy for treatment-resistant tumors
“One of the problems with pancreatic cancer is that it is intrinsically resistant to most treatments, including chemo immunotherapy. It puts up a shield that prevents the immune system from recognizing it. What we are doing is trying to overcome that shield that the tumor puts up, to try to educate the immune system to recognize that tumor is there to get rid of it. Because Garcia’s tumor had a rare type of genetic makeup, immunotherapy worked for him,” Hosein said.
“That’s what immediately saved my life,” Garcia said.
Three months after treatment, Garcia’s PET scans came back clear.
“This is my guy now. It’s like anything he says, I’m going to do,” Garcia said.
Because symptoms may not present until the cancer is advanced, Hosein says screening for those at high risk is key.
“If you have a family history of pancreatic cancer, especially if you have more than two family members affected, we have a screening program here at Sylvester where we are doing MRI scans, and endoscopic ultrasound tests to look for tumors in the pancreas,” Hosein said..
Garcia feels great and is back doing what he loves – jumping off mountains. He’s forever grateful for the support of his doctor and family.
“It wasn’t even so much that I had courage because I wasn’t afraid because of my family, because of Dr. Hosein, because of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center,” Garcia said.
Video transcript compiled by Janna Ross for ‘Focusing on You: Innovations in Modern Medicine,’ a series of health care-related stories airing regularly on WPLG Local 10. For more stories like this one, visit UHealth’s YouTube channel.
Tags: Dr. Peter Hosein, focusing on you, high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma, medical oncology, pancreatic cancer