Confronting The Challenges Of Pancreatic Cancer

By Kaaren Valenta

Berny Klaus was a big, strong man, 6-foot-2, 240 pounds, a veteran volunteer firefighter, the father of two Eagle Scouts.

So when he developed back pain in the spring of 2002, he figured he must have pulled a muscle while skiing. But Berny Klaus had pancreatic cancer. He died five months later at the age of 50.

“The statistics say it all,” said his wife, Ellen, a nurse who volunteers at Kevin’s Community Center. “Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of any cancer – 98 percent,” she said. “The average life expectancy after diagnosis is just three to six months. That was exactly right in our case.”

Despite the fact that approximately 31,860 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year in the United States and 31,270 will die, only .8 of 1 percent of the National Cancer Institute’s cancer research budget is spent on pancreatic cancer research.

“There also is no test for it, like a mammogram, a PSA [prostate test], or colonoscopy,” Mrs Klaus said. “When you get a symptom, it is too late. There are few treatment options.”

The Klaus family, which lives on Brassie Road in Newtown, has been attempting to spread the word about pancreatic cancer to help raise money for research. Matthew, 20, a junior at American University in Washington, D.C., is a volunteer for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) with the help of his fraternity, Sigma Chi.

“Matthew found PanCAN. I didn’t know anything about it at the time,” Mrs Klaus said. “November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. The symbol is the purple ribbon but many people still aren’t aware of it. Yet Berny certainly wasn’t the only person with pancreatic cancer in Newtown.”

 John Giorno was only 42 when he died in February 2002, only a few months after being diagnosed. Mr Giorno was active in youth sports and an annual basketball tournament is played in his memory in Newtown.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cancer killer in the United States among both men and women. It does not discriminate by age, gender, or race. Only four percent of patients will survive beyond five years.

Born Bernhard F. Klaus in Lippstadt, Germany, Mr Klaus had a master’s degree in finance from Western Connecticut State University and worked for Perkin-Elmer Corporation. He was a longtime volunteer firefighter with Newtown Hook & Ladder and committee chairman for Boy Scout Troop 370.

When he was first diagnosed with stage four metastasized pancreatic cancer in May 2002, Mr Klaus waited to tell his sons. His older son, Bernhard T. Klaus, now 24, was graduating from college that month, marrying his college sweetheart, Brooke, and both were entering the active US Army as officers through ROTC. Matthew was also graduating from Immaculate High School in Danbury.

“My husband wanted all of us to enjoy the wedding and the other family events before breaking the news,” Mrs Klaus said.

“His doctor, John Pezzimenti, a hematologist/oncologist, told him that he might last a couple months without treatment, or a year with treatment. He mentioned a clinical trial at Yale-New Haven Hospital that he could do at Danbury Hospital. Berny saw a woman [patient] in the doctor’s office who had been on that clinical trial for a year and she looked great, so he said ‘That’s what I want to be on.’”

The treatment did not work for Berny Klaus, however.

“It was awful,” Ms Klaus said. “He lost 60 pounds in a month because he just couldn’t eat and he’d have diarrhea as often as 26 times in 24 hours. He had to be hospitalized.

“He then went on the standard therapy, Gemsar, but he had one dose and had to be intubated. It knocked out his lungs. He spent 17 days in the hospital this time and came home on oxygen, because he preferred to be at home rather than at [a nursing home facility].

Three weeks later he seemed much better, even able to drive. But he refused to stop treatment. At that point Ellen Klaus tried to get her husband into a holistic program directed by a doctor in New York, but after his lengthy application was reviewed, he was rejected. So he opted to try another form chemotherapy.

“He went on something else and went right downhill,” Ms Klaus said. “No one knows why he reacted to chemo the way he did.”

Berny Klaus died October 27, 2002, at his home. The following year, Newtown Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 dedicated its new Ladder Truck No. 114 in his honor in a ceremony at the firehouse where he had been an active member of the company for 18 years.

Last year, Ellen Klaus took part in the American Cancer Society’s first Relay for Life event in Newtown, and she plans to be part of a new team when the overnight is held again this year in June.

Berny Klaus’s older son and daughter-in-law, both first lieutenants, were sent to Afghanistan for ten months. There, his son had the US flag flown during Operation Enduring Freedom IV on October 27, 2003, the first anniversary of his father’s death, in his memory and later presented it to his mother.

A computer science and music dual-major, Matt Klaus spent last semester abroad, studying in London, but his friends ran the PanCAN campaign in his absence. Ellen Klaus and other volunteers passed out information at St Rose of Lima Church, where the family members are longtime parishioners.

Raising money for pancreatic cancer research is important, Mrs Klaus said. Despite the especially lethal nature of pancreatic cancer, the research spending per pancreatic cancer is only $1,145, the lowest of any leading cancer.

Founded in 1999, PanCAN is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to focusing national attention on the need to find a cure for pancreatic cancer. The organization promotes the need for more research, effective treatments, prevention programs, and early detection methods. It also provides patient services via a toll-free number, 877-272-6226, and a website, www.pancan.org.