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Thursday, January 3, 2013 by

Sarah Carabott

Doctor winning fight to the death against cancer

Karin celebrating Christmas. Right: Karin Busuttil with her husband Kevin and son Jethro.

Karin celebrating Christmas. Right: Karin Busuttil with her husband Kevin and son Jethro.

A doctor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after giving birth to her first baby is urging sufferers not to give up and to seek alternative opinions when all doors are shut in their faces.

I’d look at my husband and in my head see him crying over my grave

“Always challenge and fight for your chance. If you give up you’ve already lost. The fight is never easy, but if you get to live... what a reward that is,” Karin Busuttil said, suggesting patients and their relatives should research, read and question everything they are told.

Dr Busuttil, who is based in Scotland and spoke to The Times over the phone, was diagnosed with cancer last February. She was just 30 and had given birth to Jethro 13 days earlier.

Since then, she has taken part in trials, tried out a new chemotherapy regime and undergone surgery, with her medical team pushing the boundaries to defeat this “horrid cancer”. She is now on her path to recovery.

Her ordeal has encouraged doctors to apply the newest pancreatic cancer research and look into promising drugs and treatment options.

Dr Busuttil’s fight with pancreatic cancer started during her pregnancy, when back pain was put down to scoliosis at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland.

Towards the end of her pregnancy she was diagnosed with pregnancy diabetes and became jaundiced, and everything was put down to pregnancy complications. But after giving birth, she felt weaker and lost 20 kilos in a week.

One day, she received an urgent call after taking tests for an outpatient appointment. While on the phone, her husband found Jethro in his crib turning blue and not breathing. Still on the phone, Karin started CPR on her week-old son, and in those few minutes she felt like her life was over.

They were taken to hospital in the same ambulance.

Fortunately, her son was discharged after 24 hours but Dr Busuttil had turned a deep yellow, and while an ultrasound scan showed nothing, an MRI showed a mass in the pancreas.

No one wanted to believe that a person could get pancreatic cancer at her age without the lifestyle of substance abuse that usually precedes it.

She had no risk factors – no obesity, diabetes, smoking, alcohol or drug use. Although her grandfather had died of pancreatic cancer in his 70s, he was a heavy smoker, and her aunt died of pancreatic cancer aged 54.

Dr Busuttil was told she was a one in 10 million case and there were only 15 documented cases worldwide that could compare to hers.

Later she was diagnosed with liver metastases, which is when the cancer spreads to the liver. She had just managed to pick herself up after getting the diagnosis and this was yet another blow. With liver metastases she was now an inoperable case.

Dr Busuttil was devastated: “I would look at my son and husband and cry. I felt like I would never see Jethro grow, and was letting down my husband and son in the biggest way possible,” she said, adding that being a doctor, she knew how dismal her outlook was.

Only 18 per cent of diagnosed patients survive the first year and only three per cent survive five years after diagnosis.

But she still hoped the chemo would shrink the pancreatic cancer and the liver metastases enough to allow for liver resection and surgery on the primary cancer.

The oncologist was cautious because the chemotherapy regimen discussed with Dr Busuttil and her husband Kevin – who had put his work on hold to take care of his family – had never been used in Scotland before.

In total she received nine cycles of chemo, and at times she would lie awake at night and “speak” to her cancer.

“I tell it to get the hell out of my body – there’s no place for it in me. I don’t know if it works, but it helped me hang on and fight.”

In the meantime, scans showed the cancer shrinking by 75 per cent by the end of the chemo – an “unprecedented success”.

Dr Busuttil underwent other tests and procedures, waiting for the “big surgery” known as Whipple’s procedure. Having been given the run-down of this risky surgery, the couple rushed to make their wills; another “harrowing experience”.

“By this point all my emotional reserves had been exhausted and I can tell you that I hit a low point.”

The couple took the opportunity and came to Malta to start setting up an apartment, if not to enjoy it herself, to leave a legacy of her tastes for her husband and child.

I tell it to get the hell out of my body – there’s no place for it in me. I don’t know if it works, but it helped me hang on and fight

But once back in Edinburgh, the surgeon refused to carry out the operation.

“I was shell-shocked. Devastated. My world had ended.”

So they started looking for second opinions in Liverpool, Southampton and Malta, and Glasgow arranged to see her on short notice.

“While preparing arguments to back up the surgery, I’d look at my husband and in my head see him crying over my grave... I’d look at my son and give my husband lists of things to look out for when he’s growing up. Then I’d look at my parents and say sorry for making them worry, in anticipation of putting them through my dying.”

The Glasgow team split the procedure in two operations. The “big surgery” lasted 10 hours and “miraculously” her liver metastases seemed to have disappeared.

“So far I have been declared radiologically cancer free,” she sighed, adding she was now recovering in preparation of reassessments next week.

Dr Busuttil admits that throughout the ordeal, her husband and son helped her keep fighting.

Visits from family and friends in Malta also sustained her, while her mum gave up her job to be with her in difficult times.

“I used to look at them and will myself to get better so I could see my son growing up, go to school, buy his first bike... his first car.

“I would set myself little goals for the week: feed Jethro, wash his hair, cook lunch, hang the laundry, go shopping for food... of course after every chemo it would be back to square one, but I tried to keep active.”

Pancreatic Cancer Support websites: http://pancreaticcanceraction.org ; www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk

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Joseph Micallef

Jan 4th, 11:25

Dear Mr Debono. Give yourself a gift and read CANCER - STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX it is a gold mine of information. It explains how and the why of cancer, how it makes itself invisible to the immune system, how to attack it and with what. How to strengthen your immune system, what works and what not. The best foods to eat etc. There are other ways than poison, cutting and burning to fight cancer.

G G Debono

Jan 5th, 13:18




Mr Micallef – let me step out of the box for you.

I have been involved in clinical research for decades and so I am qualified to sniff misguided rubbish (or phoney books) from 5 miles away.

Your remark “There are other ways than poison, cutting and burning to fight cancer” is pure dangerous nonsense. If you have no experience in the specialiity then just shut up.

G G Debono

Jan 3rd, 18:13

The scientific evidence that traffic pollution increases the risk of cancer is strong. Traffic in Malta has increased to such levels over the past 20 to 25 years that it has been reasonably predicted that we have yet to see an excess of cancer cases in the present adult and young generation in Malta during coming years.

Hearing of cases like this makes one wonder if pollution played a part.

Reuben D. Spiteri

Jan 3rd, 15:18

I would also add to that a suggestion to read the book 'Cancer - Why we're still dying to know the truth' by Phillip Day. Mr Day also lost members of his family to cancer. 6 in 6 months in fact. He got fed up with all of it and decided to do some digging of his own to see where we really are in this 'war'.

The results are nothing short of shocking.

hesperia Caruana

Jan 3rd, 15:23

I agree with you that it is a miracle. Prayers for my daughter have been pouring in constantly from all parts of the world. Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
keep it up Karin! let us hear the happy ending:- 'and she lived happily ever after!'

Reuben D. Spiteri

Jan 3rd, 16:12

@ hesperia Caruana

There's nothing miraculous in recovery from cancer. I used the term as a way of speaking, not literally.

All one needs to recover is healthy diet with plenty of fruit&veg (mostly raw), good amount of exercise, a positive attitude and eliminating toxins from his/her environment. This includes getting rid of chemo altogether.

Adrian P. Cassar

Jan 3rd, 20:20

Cancer survival has improved dramatically over the last decades thanks to chemotherapy, pancreatic cancer is an unfortunate exception. Karin is fighting for pancreatic cancer research.

S Azzopardi

Jan 3rd, 20:29

Dear Reuben Spiteri,
Unless you can substantiate your claims with hard evidence in the form of double blind randimized control trials then please stop making such statements.

Angianne Haber

Jan 4th, 10:08

you do not seem to have read the fine print (or even the large one at that) - it states that the case is one in 10000000.
Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas has no known causes but predominantly affects persons who
are Obese,are Male, are Over 50, who SMOKE and/or Drink and/or abuse other drugs...

Can you prove that diet and more exercise will prevent the 4th most lethal cancer?

M Sciberras

Jan 3rd, 14:56

1. I really was not going to comment on this one but you are 100% right. Like many I have lost loved ones to cancer or seen them fight it. I have been through the false hopes, the wide mood swings between crazy optimism and surrender, hope, depression. I was not lucky enough to witness 'miracles' but the 'acceptance' I witnessed that led to peace was just as good.

M Sciberras

Jan 3rd, 15:02

2. It is good to urge others to fight cancer. Let there be no doubt about it. And I wish Dr Busuttil the very best. But it is not a fight that everyone wins. I wish this article, for the sake of those who have fought and lost, placed just a little bit of emphasis on that.

A Bezzina

Jan 3rd, 12:31

Well said! May you keep on fighting back, and may your fight be an inspiration to others too! It's about time that that research into pancreatic cancer is stepped up! Thanks for giving of yourself for this to happen!

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