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RBG update #RBG #RuthBaderGinsburg
1/ As I have been speculating based on the publicly available info, RBG turns out to have been on chemo to treat her advanced pancreatic ca. It's got to the point where she can't hide it anymore. So she announced her treatment info today..
1/ As I have been speculating based on the publicly available info, RBG turns out to have been on chemo to treat her advanced pancreatic ca. It's got to the point where she can't hide it anymore. So she announced her treatment info today..
2/ We have quite a few nuggets of info found in her announcement. A) She has liver mets, initially discovered in Feb 2020. That almost certainly confirms my year-old suspicion that she's had stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the pancreas...
3/ She even had malignant lung nodules back in 2018. We also know that her cancer is locally advanced encroaching on her common duct, needing a stent. We can rule out the more curable malignant pancreatic cell type (neuroendocrine tumor) because if she had that, ....
4/ ...they would have mentioned it long ago.
B) Immunotherapy didn't work. That's the latest type of therapy where it could be tailor made and targeted. She started on it as sooon as her liver mets were discovered. That means she lost precious 3 months.
B) Immunotherapy didn't work. That's the latest type of therapy where it could be tailor made and targeted. She started on it as sooon as her liver mets were discovered. That means she lost precious 3 months.
5/ C) She's on Gemcitabine. That's a relatively milder form of chemo with fewer side effects than many others. So, it's appropriate for her age. Again, the goal is not the cure, but to stretch her functional life span. ...
6/ Literature suggests the median survival of patients on this chemo for this type of cancer without other therapy is approximately 6 months, for patients in the age group of 55-80. ---
7/ Given her more advanced age, her expected survival is less than that, probably 4 months, if she is lucky. The fact that she had a recent blockage of her biliary stent also suggests that this chemo is probably not working well despite what she said in the statement. ---
8/ Given all this available info, I would re-mention my previous prediction that she wouldn't be back to the bench in the fall, one way or another. Most likely, she would be forced to retire by her illness before the next USSC term. Bless her heart.
