Pancreatic cancer diagnosis blooms into a life’s mission

The search for a highly skilled surgical oncologist

The Berrys, Bob and his wife, Teri, weren’t ready to give up.

They started researching high-volume cancer centers across the country with excellent reputations backed by proven outcomes.

Their goal was to find a surgeon who would say “yes” and tell the Berrys that they had good reason to fight and, more importantly, remain hopeful.

Their search for a second opinion didn’t lead them far.

The Berrys made an appointment with surgical oncologist Timothy Pawlik, MD, PhD, MPH, at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), after learning of him through a friend who works at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Berry’s tumor would be challenging to remove, Dr. Pawlik told them, but he said he could complete the surgery.

It wasn’t so much the size of the tumor but rather the location that presented challenges, Dr. Pawlik recalls.

The growth was in the central area of the pancreas near critical blood vessel structures, such as arteries, that can’t be removed or damaged during surgery.

“The other surgeon thought one of the critical vessels was completely involved with the cancer. When I looked at the film, I had a different impression. I suspected that it was more disease-related to the lymph nodes surrounding the artery, and that I could remove it all,” Dr. Pawlik says. “Some of that’s just experience because I had seen this type of situation multiple times before.”

Dr. Pawlik was able to explain his strategy for removing the growth.

“I showed Bob his films, walked him and Teri through it. I laid it all out, and this was really a shared decision for them to reach,” Dr. Pawlik says.

Dr. Pawlik has a philosophy that patient care is twofold.

Part of it relies on his technical expertise with a scalpel, but the other part is simply being there for patients and helping them through the process.

“A big part of their care is coming to grasp with a diagnosis and being comfortable in the ambiguity of a prognosis,” Dr. Pawlik says.

“I feel very passionately that patients need to understand their disease and be given the information, resources, space and the trust so they can make decisions that they feel are best for them,” he says.

“Winning through God, attitude and treatment”

Like many people with pancreatic cancer, Berry’s diagnosis came out of nowhere.

There were no obvious signs or pancreatic cancer symptoms.

Berry, who then worked as chief legal officer for an automotive software company, attended a health fair for employees. His blood pressure was taken and observed as unusually high. He followed up with his primary care doctor, who began ordering tests and asking about possible symptoms.

One area of concern: his appetite had not been the greatest.

But he passed an EKG, eventually had his blood pressure return to lower levels, and his other results including an ultrasound came back normal.

Still, because of his family history of pancreatic cancer, his doctor ordered an MRI.

The scans confirmed the worst.

Berry had a rule for his care team as he began to undergo treatment.

“The rule was: ‘If you have good news, you tell me; if you have bad news, you tell Teri,’” he says. “So, if there was bad news, I didn’t know about it.”

Berry purposely didn’t research what happens to people with pancreatic cancer.

He didn’t need to.

He remembered his mother’s fight. It lasted all of three months.

“I knew what happened with my mom,” he says. “We had dealt with this before, and we knew it was really bad.”

Berry’s mother-in-law came up with a mantra for their family and support network to repeat during Bob’s fight.

They referred to it as winning through God, attitude and treatment — Gat for short.

It was simple.

Lean on faith, stay positive and get the best treatment possible.

Berry completed a series of chemotherapy treatments and Dr. Pawlik successfully removed the mass from his pancreas in July 2019.

“I was fortunate that I had a surgeon who was really technically superior at doing this operation,” he says. “He also combined that with a high emotional quotient where he was recognizing the stresses that a patient has when facing this diagnosis.”

As treatment options continue to advance, Berry is part of a small but growing number of pancreatic cancer survivors who’ve hit the five-year survival mark.

“There have been significant strides over the last decade. Systemic chemotherapy, while not a cure for many, is much more effective and can provide people with survival,” Dr. Pawlik says. “I think Bob is a living example of that.”

Putting pancreatic cancer research in focus

In the five years since his initial surgery, Berry has had positive momentum and discouraging setbacks.

In 2024, a cancerous spot was detected on his lung but was successfully removed. Those recurrences can happen even with successful treatment of the original cancer.

It’s one of the important reasons that cancer survivors need to be monitored for years, Dr. Pawlik says.

Today, Berry continues to be monitored every six months.

He’s also fighting cancer on a different front.

“We want other patients to have positive outcomes,” he says.

The Berrys have collectively raised more than half a million dollars for pancreatic cancer research at the OSUCCC – James.

“Bob and Teri are just outrageously generous and kind in the largest definition of the term,” Dr. Pawlik says.

The need for research is dire as pancreatic cancer becomes more common and still has a very grave prognosis and high death rate.

According to the National Institutes of Health, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, which Berry had, has an average five-year survival rate of less than 10%.

Dr. Pawlik says there are lots of factors that determine survival rates, including treatment response and stage of cancer when detected.

“I share those data with my patients. I also help them understand that they are not a statistic. We’re here to treat you, and we’re going to proceed under the assumption that you’re going to be alive five years from now and doing well.”

Dr. Pawlik’s research efforts focus on pancreatic, bile duct and liver cancer. His research team has identified a specific gene that’s associated with early onset of these cancers.

More research is needed to understand the cellular activity and the ecosystem within the pancreas that supports tumor growth, Dr. Pawlik says.

“Pancreatic cancer is an area where we really need to build research so we can have more discoveries that will improve and save patients’ lives,” Dr. Pawlik says.

Making cancer research their life’s mission

Berry’s diagnosis, which overlapped with the pandemic, changed how he chose to live.

He quit his stressful corporate job.

He adopted a healthy lifestyle.

He practices yoga.

He lives a life of gratitude.

He began working on the family farm with Teri, who professionally grows and sells flowers through their business, Berry’s Blooms, which includes a retail shop in their 1860s barn.

It turns out that their farm was a wonderful backdrop to hold events and raise money for pancreatic cancer research.

They began hosting fundraising dinners in fields of sunflowers, in the greenhouse and in lush, wooded areas on their property.

The Berrys, who are self-described introverts, learned to step outside of their comfort zone by sharing their story publicly and asking people to give.

“If it helps somebody else, I’m happy to do that,” Berry says. “We feel very fortunate and very blessed. We had the right doctor at the right time and at the right place.”

While there are no screenings to identify pancreatic cancer in the earliest stages, Berry tells people to pay attention to their bodies.

“You have got to make sure you listen to your body. If I hadn’t acted on my elevated blood pressure, I would have never gone to the doctor,” he says. “You have got to advocate for yourself.”