C.F. man fighting same kind of cancer Jobs had

Gary Gute considers himself among the lucky ones.

In May 2010 Gute went to the doctor for what he thought was kidney stones. A CT scan revealed something else completely. Gute had a tumor on his pancreas. Further tests revealed the growth was an islet cell, or neuroendocrine, tumor --- the same kind of cancer Steve Jobs was diagnosed with in 2004 and died from earlier this month. Only about 5 percent of all pancreatic cancer diagnoses are islet cells, which are more slow-growing than the more common adenocarcinoma tumors, which are very aggressive and fast growing.

"I didn't have any symptoms. I am extraordinarily fortunate that it was picked up incidentally on that CAT scan," he said. Without that scan the tumor, which did not secrete any hormones, likely would have gone undetected for much longer. "There is no mechanism for screening the general population for pancreatic cancer. That's a big reason why the death rate is so high."

According to the National Cancer Institute the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 6 percent. And that hasn't changed in more than four decades, Gute said. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network was founded in 1999 to "advance research, support patients and create hope," according to the organization's website.

Gute and other local volunteers recently began working with the organization to develop a local chapter. The group meets four times a year to plan events and "get involved in the fight against pancreatic cancer," Gute said.

Ethan Fischer's knowledge of pancreatic cancer was limited to Randy Pausch and his infamous "last lecture" given at Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 just months before pancreatic cancer claimed his life. Then his father was diagnosed with the disease in November 2009. He died in February 2010.

"We searched the Internet and all indications were that it was a very serious form of cancer, but there was little known about it and little funding for research," said Fischer, who is working with Gute to organize the local support network. "I said I would do whatever I could to help with raising money and awareness."