Pancreatic Cancer NO MORE

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kira Andersen.  My husband, Kyle is a 47 year old loving husband and father to 3 beautiful toddlers. Our oldest Cora is 4.5, middle girl, Leah is 2.5 and finally our boy, Dane is 15 months. On October 24th, 2021 I took my husband into the ER for severe stomach pain and vomiting. He had been experiencing symptoms of discomfort since spring of last year but he just chalked it up to some probiotics I had him on and a family history of IBS therefore, we thought we were going in for a bowel blockage caused by IBS or some other GI issue. They immediately did a CT scan and it turns out he had a massive cancer tumor in the body of his pancreas, on his liver and wrapped around his colon which is why he was blocked. A NG tube was placed to drain his stomach and we were admitted right into the hospital.  After a week in the hospital and finally an appointment with an oncologist, we were released. We weren’t able to get into to see our oncologist Dr. Kian Lim for another 2 weeks.  We were told cancer "does not grow that fast" so we should be fine to wait.....

My husband is from Montana and wanted to get out there to see his family and spend time in the mountains before starting chemotherapy. We planned to stay for a week. While we were there his cancer continued to spread rapidly and blocked his colon once again. He had to be admitted back into the ER in Bozeman, MT and spent a couple days in the hospital in order to get him stable to be able to fly back to St Louis to be admitted into Siteman Cancer Center. 

We had to take an emergency plane to St Louis and only to jump in the car and drive directly to Dr. Lims office.  Dr. Lim and his team evaluated him and sent him directly to Siteman Cancer Centers main hospital to be admitted to the cancer floor. They had a scan done and it revealed his cancer had doubled in the 2 weeks. We spent 3 weeks in the hospital with all sorts of doctors focused on Kyle and his case. They successfully placed a GTUBE in his stomach in order to get the NG tube out of his nose. It was causing irritation and not a great long term plan. Soon after arrival they shared they had found a sack of fluid which was potentially infected from a perforated bowel. They took some fluid out and it was indeed an infection. They had to place a tube in the sack of fluid to drain the infection as quickly and safely as possible.


The story continues ....

I am surely off on my timeline and leaving out some details but I hope I am painting a picture for you.  We were in and out of the hospital a couple times for various issues, one being a bleed we were scared about, turns out it was an ulcer THANK GOD. 
Kyle had 4 rounds of Folfirinox which is the first line standard of care for patients with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  We had a scan to see the progress and it showed a mixed response. His pancreatic tumor shrunk slightly, his tumors around his colon stayed mostly stable, some shrinkage and some stayed the same size. There were 2 spots on his liver, one stayed the same and one grew.

Dr. Lim decided to switch his treatment to Gemzar Abraxane. Another chemotherapy regimen which is also a "standard of care" for patients in Kyles shoes.  Praying for good news.

So why am I sharing our story and being so open with all of this?

A few months ago, Dr. Kian Lim shared with us a study he had done on mice using folfirinox (standard chemo treatment), (an MK2 inhibitor) and an immunotherapy drug. It eradicated the cancer in the mice. All of them. 


Here is the issue at hand.  Cancer research doctors spend more time applying for grants and funds than they do actually doing the research.  Grants are extremely competitive and take time.  Lots of time.  Even when issued the grant, oftentimes it doesn't cover anywhere near the amount they need for the study or its gifted but over a few years.  It can be a SLOW process. The problem with cancer is it's not patient or nice enough to hang tight while we search for funding.  

We are going to do everything we possibly can to help Dr. Lim and his team to cure or at least prolong the life of patients cursed with this awful disease. I need my husband. My children need their father. I cannot raise these 3 children alone. I am scared to death. We are fighting for his life. 

Please let me know if you can help in any way. I would like to spread this word as much as possible and raise awareness about pancreatic cancer and how it is on the rise. We all need a treatment that works. If we can get the money directly to Dr. Lim and allow him to use his brain power on research and not grant writing I truly believe we will get closer to what we are all hoping for.



Thank you SO incredibly much for your time and consideration . I hope we can work together to make a difference in this cancer.

The Kyle Andersen Fund contact is Dina Althardt - email is dalthardt@wustl.edu

Link to fund:
http://giving.wustl.edu/AndersenFund

• Category

  Pancreatic Cancer