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People Top 5
Cover Story
Fighting Together
Facing the battle of his life against pancreatic cancer, Patrick
Swayze leans on his 'pillar of strength': Lisa, his wife of 32
years
Originally posted Thursday March 13, 2008 01:10 PM EDT
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Patrick Swayze Photo by: Zuma |
The
doctors on the other end of the line were calling with knee-buckling news for
Patrick Swayze: a prognosis regarding his pancreatic cancer. But as the actor
discussed his options during a conference call five weeks ago at his ranch north
of Los Angeles, his brother Don Swayze was in awe. "I was looking in his eyes
and I didn't see a flicker [of fear]," says Don. "I saw him think about it for
like five seconds, and then he moved right into, 'Well, we've got a battle ahead
of us.' You never really know what kind of soldier you would be until you're
faced with the battle of your life. He's a warrior."
Swayze, 55, knows he won't face that battle alone: His wife of 32 years, Lisa,
51, will be by his side. "She really has been a rock," says her sister-in-law
Dr. Maria Scouros, a Houston oncologist who is married to Lisa's brother
Edmond. "She's there to support him through all of this." Whether keeping track
of her husband's medications, pureéing special high-fat meals for him or flying
him to his chemotherapy treatments at Stanford University Medical Center in
Stanford, Calif. – like Swayze, she is a licensed pilot – Lisa, says Don, 49,
"is a pillar of strength."
Her husband has never needed that strength more. Currently undergoing a
four-week cycle of chemotherapy – coupled with the experimental drug Vatalanib
to cut off the tumor's blood supply in hopes of shrinking it – Swayze is
squaring off against a vicious cancer that claims 75 percent of patients within
the first year of diagnosis. Despite the grim statistics, Swayze "has a very
limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus
far," Dr. George Fisher, his oncologist, said in a March 5 statement. The doctor
also told People, "We do have our successes with pancreatic cancer, and I think
that each patient has the right to be hopeful and optimistic. But the sad truth
is that there aren't as many [positive outcomes] as we would like."
From The Insider printed in May 2008.
