The John E. Sab­ga Foun­da­tion (J.E.S.F.)

Right here in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the John E. Sab­ga Foun­da­tion (J.E.S.F) be­came a mem­ber of the steer­ing com­mit­tee of WPCC in 2019 and founder here, Na­tal­ie Sab­ga has walked this path­way in­ti­mate­ly pro­vid­ing fam­i­lies and per­sons be­ing di­ag­nosed with pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, strength, em­pa­thy and hope.

Turn­ing Grief in­to Giv­ing with Grace

“I watched my aunt Na­to bat­tle pan­cre­at­ic can­cer side by side with her hus­band John.” Mariel Sab­ga shared. “She did so with pos­i­tiv­i­ty, with faith and with grace, nev­er com­plain­ing, nev­er ask­ing why but al­ways con­fi­dent in their fight. 10 months lat­er they lost the bat­tle. When every­one was crum­bling, she some­how man­aged to main­tain the strength to sup­port her fam­i­ly. Through it all, she ques­tioned not why it hap­pened to him BUT why there was no cure, what more could have been done, and how she could find a way to change things for oth­ers. Her ques­tion­ing be­came des­per­a­tion which turned in­to de­ter­mi­na­tion. Three months lat­er, the first draft of the mis­sion and vi­sion state­ment for the John E. Sab­ga Foun­da­tion for pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer was writ­ten. Na­tal­ie was GO­ING TO FIND A CURE FOR PAN­CRE­AT­IC CAN­CER and no ob­sta­cle was go­ing to stop her.”

Im­prov­ing the pa­tient’s lit­er­a­cy and un­der­stand­ing of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, en­cour­ag­ing ear­ly screen­ing and pre­vent­ing the out­come they ex­pe­ri­enced, be­came the pri­ma­ry goals of JES Foun­da­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Caribbean re­gion. From in­cep­tion, to now, the JES Foun­da­tion has achieved mon­u­men­tal tasks and that is at­trib­uted to the dri­ving force of Na­tal­ie Sab­ga. Her tenac­i­ty and de­ter­mi­na­tion to make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of those af­fect­ed by Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer here in Trinidad and To­ba­go and to en­sure no oth­er fam­i­ly en­dures that pain and grief is ex­tra­or­di­nary. She may not have found the cure as yet, but she is re­lent­less in her fight and works tire­less­ly, at all times with a smile and al­ways with grace.

De­vel­op­ing Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer

What in­creas­es your risk?

1. Di­a­betes

Many stud­ies have in­di­cat­ed that di­a­betes in­creas­es the risk of de­vel­op­ing pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, es­pe­cial­ly when a per­son has had di­a­betes for many years. In ad­di­tion, sud­den­ly de­vel­op­ing di­a­betes lat­er in adult­hood can be an ear­ly symp­tom of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. How­ev­er, it is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber that not all peo­ple who have di­a­betes or who are di­ag­nosed with di­a­betes as adults de­vel­op pan­cre­at­ic can­cer.

2. Smok­ing.

Peo­ple who smoke to­bac­co are 2 to 3 times more like­ly to de­vel­op pan­cre­at­ic can­cer than those who do not.

3. Al­co­hol.

Chron­ic, heavy al­co­hol use can al­so in­crease the risk of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, most like­ly by caus­ing re­cur­rent pan­cre­ati­tis, which is re­peat­ed in­flam­ma­tion of the pan­creas.

4. Fam­i­ly his­to­ry.

In­di­vid­u­als with a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer are at an in­creased life­time risk for de­vel­op­ing pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. Fam­i­ly his­to­ry of ge­net­ic syn­dromes that can in­crease can­cer risk, in­clud­ing a BR­CA2 gene mu­ta­tion, Lynch syn­drome and fa­mil­ial atyp­i­cal mole-ma­lig­nant melanoma (FAM­MM) syn­drome

5. Di­et

While more re­search is need­ed, a di­et high in red and processed meats may in­crease the risk of de­vel­op­ing pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. A di­et high in fruits and veg­eta­bles may de­crease the risk.

How is pan­cre­at­ic can­cer treat­ed?

Treat­ment for pan­cre­at­ic can­cer is de­pen­dent on how ad­vanced the can­cer is and a pa­tient’s over­all health. If pos­si­ble, sur­geons will re­move the can­cer; the most com­mon op­er­a­tion is the Whip­ple pro­ce­dure (surgery to re­move all or part of the pan­creas and oth­er or­gans). Surgery is usu­al­ly fol­lowed up with chemother­a­py.

For metasta­t­ic pan­cre­at­ic can­cer (spread to oth­er parts of the body) treat­ment may in­clude chemother­a­py and oc­ca­sion­al­ly ra­dio­ther­a­py too. A pa­tient may al­so be of­fered treat­ment to re­lieve symp­toms and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to join a clin­i­cal tri­al.