He Got His Life Back After an Inoperable Pancreatic Tumor

If there is one thing Doug Woolard has learned in life, it’s the value of having a strong, well-prepared team. It’s one reason he sought care at Miami Cancer Institute after he was diagnosed with an inoperable pancreatic tumor.

The retired athletic director from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Mr. Woolard drove across the state from his home in Clearwater to undergo groundbreaking treatment at Miami Cancer Institute with Michael Chuong, M.D., medical director of the Department of Radiation Oncology.

“I coached for 15 years and I was an athletic director at the collegiate level for over 20 years,” Mr. Woolard says, adding that he knows a thing or two about mounting a good fight. “I think there are a lot of parallels. You know, when you get a disease like this, you understand the importance of teams, and you understand the importance of the people that you are surrounded with.”

(Watch now: Retired athletic director Doug Woolard knows the value of having a strong, well-prepared team. That’s why, after being diagnosed with an inoperable pancreatic tumor, he sought care at Miami Cancer Institute. Video by Alex Nobrega.)

Training and experience are key, Mr. Woolard says. Also paramount are the ability to approach challenges in new ways, strategize, and pivot when necessary. He says he found all that at the Institute, part of Baptist Health Cancer Care. “They gave me back my life. I have a chance to continue enjoying myself, enjoying my family, enjoying life. I don't think I'd have that chance if I hadn't come here.”

Advancing Treatment Options for Patients

Miami Cancer Institute has been at the international forefront of treating pancreatic tumors using the MRIdian Linac, the first FDA-approved MR-guided radiation therapy system. The system “marries” the technology used for radiation treatments with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allowing real-time monitoring as therapy is administered.

When surgery to remove the cancer is not an option, this system enables very high, ablative radiation doses to be non-invasively delivered without anesthesia in as few as one to five outpatient sessions. Research has demonstrated that it can be especially effective in treating pancreatic cancer, in some cases more than doubling life-expectancy while rarely causing significant side effects.

Michael Chuong, M.D., medical director of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute

“It allows us to deliver pinpoint radiation to tumors in the abdomen in such a way that has never been possible before,” Dr. Chuong says. “Through this precision and accuracy, we are able to deliver such a high dose of radiation that we can potentially completely eradicate even very large tumors, which once was not thought to be possible.”

Combining radiation with real-time visualization allows oncologists to define very tight treatment margins, avoiding radiation exposure to other nearby organs. The system is so advanced that it even adapts for movement when a patient breathes.

“I'm so excited that Doug has had such an incredible outcome despite being faced with a very challenging tumor. Not only did he tolerate the treatment without any major side effects, but the pain that he had from the tumor before we treated him also completely went away and has never come back,” Dr. Chuong says. “And perhaps most importantly the tumor we treated completely went away and has not recurred after several years. Really, this a testament to how advances in technology and radiation therapy have led to the ability to eradicate tumors safely in a much shorter treatment period and offer patients the chance for cure who were told there was no hope before coming to Miami Cancer Institute.”

Why Miami Cancer Institute?

Mr. Woolard and his wife, Cherrie, we shocked by his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2021. He had been planning a trip from Tampa to visit his grandchildren when he noticed his heart was racing, which was unusual for him because he is so active. His cardiologist advised him to go to the emergency room.

Initially they thought his bile ducts might be clogged because he was also having digestive symptoms. But it turned out to be a far more serious diagnosis. “We knew a little bit about pancreatic cancer and we both were devastated by the news,” Mr. Woolard recalls. “I probably learned more in the next 48 hours about cancer than I ever thought I'd need to know.”

It appeared the cancer was caught early, so Mr. Woolard traveled to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia for a Whipple procedure to remove the head of the pancreas, the bile ducts, the gallbladder and part of the duodenum. He was fortunate in having this option. The vast majority of pancreatic cancer cases aren’t caught until they are advanced, which eliminates the possibility of potentially curative surgery for more than half of patients.

It was the beginning of a long and arduous treatment journey for Mr. Woolard. The cancer spread to his lymph nodes, so he was treated with 40 rounds of chemotherapy closer to home, in Tampa. It was during this treatment about a year later that his physicians discovered the cancer had metastasized to his liver, so he had an minimally invasive ablation procedure to destroy that. But then, a year later, his tumor recurred in the abdomen in the area of the Whipple procedure.

“They said, ‘Well, you are not a candidate for conventional radiation therapy because the tumor is surrounded by the small intestine and you’re not a candidate for surgery because the tumor is encasing a major blood vessel,’” Mr. Woolard recalls. “That's not what you want to hear.”

He was then referred to the Miami Cancer Institute, where Dr. Chuong was advancing research and having incredible results with MRIdian Linac. “They said he's one of the leading persons not only in the nation, but in the entire world, who is very proficient at this, to the point where he actually goes around and teaches other radiation oncologists this procedure,” Mr. Woolard says. “I said, ‘I'm in! Count me in!’”

Moving On With Life

After five sessions of highly focused radiation treatments lasting about 45 minutes each with Dr. Chuong and his team, Mr. Woolard and his wife drove back home.

Mr. Woolard’s tumor was challenging because it was wrapping around some critical blood vessels and it was up against his intestines, Dr. Chuong says. But two years later, it has not returned. An additional spot of cancer that appeared lower in his abdomen was later treated in the same fashion.

“I'm really excited to say that his scans since then have shown that he has no evidence of any active cancer in his body,” Dr. Chuong says. “This is something that just a few short years ago we never would have thought to be possible.”

Mr. Woolard checks in regularly with Dr. Chuong and remains on immunotherapy medication to help his body recognize and destroy cancer cells. His life is filled with retirement pursuits — pickleball, golf, boating, travel and visits with his two children and four grandchildren. He is grateful for the time he has been given and that Miami Cancer Institute and Dr. Chuong were part of his team.

Dr. Chuong, who attended medical school at the University of South Florida, is also glad he met Mr. Woolard, with whom he has a special connection. “I am so excited for Doug and for being a part of his journey,” he says. “It's been such a humbling experience.”

The groundbreaking treatment offered Mr. Woolard hopefully will become more widely available and become a standard of care, Dr. Chuong says.

“This is something that has not become available at most cancer centers throughout the United States, or even internationally,” he says. “We here at Miami Cancer Institute have been one of the early pioneers of this technology that allows us to offer very sophisticated treatments that have incredibly high success rates.”