Wichita Falls woman diagnosed with very rare bile duct cancer has successful surgery

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06/16/23

Janet Beard was looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with her family last year when a cancer diagnosis canceled her plans.

The retired pharmacist from Wichita Falls says she first became worried when her son noticed something was wrong. He could see it in her eyes: an unnatural yellow tint.

Over the next few days, the jaundice got worse and spread throughout her body. Janet’s symptoms brought her to the office of Edward Cho, MD, hepatobiliary surgeon on the medical staff at Methodist Richardson Medical Center.

“The workup revealed that Janet had a mass in the head of her pancreas,” Dr. Cho says, “and 90% of the time that usually turns out to be cancer.”

In Janet’s case, it was a rare type of bile duct carcinoma known as distal cholangiocarcinoma.