Tim Keller Gives Cancer Update, And It’s Bleak
Last year, Tim Keller gave an update on his ongoing health crisis, and it was encourging, but not without its challenges. Keller was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2020 and thankfully was taking positive steps towards recovery, writing in November of 2020 that his recent CAT scans show continued improvement and the physician is “surprised” and “delighted” with the headway he is having as he burns through rounds of chemotherapy, calling his progress “incredible.”
This was excellent news, as the recovery rates are devastatingly low. According to John Hopkins Hospital, “The combined five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer—the percentage of all patients who are living five years after diagnosis—is very low at just 5 to 10 percent” on account of it typically being caught so late in the game.
Sadly, Keller announced on Twitter in December of 2021 that his pancreatic cancer has progressed into stage IV, which is essentially regarded as incurable. The five-year survival rate is 1%, with the vast majority of patients expected to live less than a year- usually around six months.
Keller survived the year, but now is facing new challenges. He wrote on Facebook this weekend that while his previous immunotherapy was successful, new tumors have formed, and he would be going in for further treatment.
Dear Praying Friends,
I will shortly be returning to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD in order to spend April doing a variation of the immunotherapy that I received last June. It was successful in eradicating 99% of the tumors. However, new tumors have developed. They are unfortunately in some fairly inconvenient places, so the doctors encouraged us to go through the treatment again, this time targeting a different genetic marker of the cancer.
It was fairly brutal last June, so we approach this with an awareness of how much prayer we need. Please pray for our trust and dependence on God, for his providential oversight of the medical preparations now in process, and for our desire to glorify God in whatever comes our way. Thank You.
Keep Keller in your prayers.
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While I understand his decision to try and prolong his life, he’d be better off just enjoying what little time left he has instead of being sick from all the treatments that aren’t going to work anyway. Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst cancers you can get as there is no cure and the diagnosis is essentially a death sentence. I don’t agree with a lot Tim Keller espouses, but I hate to see anyone suffer from this horrible affliction.
I agree. The only people who benefit from treatments at stage IV (or I’m believing these days that it applies to almost any stage) are the drug companies.