Help Dr. Lauer's family after his passing

I am a family physician in Brewer, Maine age 51, unexpectedly struck with pancreas cancer, recently metastatic spread to liver. This was found during major surgery attempting to remove the tumor on July 12, 2024.

My wife Ellen and I have three little children Charlie 5, Frankie 7, and Maggie 10. My diagnosis was devastating to our young family. Words like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, cancer, and metastasis should not have to to be in their vocabulary...but it is now.

Since 2000, I have been doctoring the fantastic residents of Brewer, Bangor, Orrington, Holden, Glenburn, Carmel, Newport, Hamden, Hermon, and many other communities, some as far away as Kennebunk and Presque Isle. 19 of those 24 years were as the business entity Twin City Family Medicine.

Due to the high fatality rates from pancreas cancer, we sought care at the top facilities: Dana Farber-Boston, Mayo Clinic-Rochester, MN, Memorial Sloan Kettering-New York City, Johns Hopkins-Baltimore, and MD Anderson-Houston.

I completed the toxic chemotherapy regimen FOLFIRINOX at my wonderful local oncology office Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care in Augusta, and three weeks of daily radiation therapy at the Mayo Clinic. July 12, 2024 was the high-risk surgical attempt at Johns Hopkins; however, after dissecting all the way down to the pancreas, my surgeon astutely noticed 4 tiny nodules on my liver. These were too small to see on any of dozens of CT scans (3 of which I had within 2 weeks at three different institutions). Neither did these show up on recent PET scans. The lesions were tested intraoperatively and found to be pancreatic cancer. Therefore, the Whipple procedure was aborted. My gall bladder came out as it appeared infected. Recovery from the very large wound going from my chest bone to pubic pain has been quite painful and difficult with complications.

Entering clinical trials at over 25 institutions across the country had been difficult to gain entry on a rapid-basis. While I am entered into 3 trials at Boston's Mass General for "K.R.A.S. inhibitors" my local oncological team believes my tumors have been upgraded from moderately aggressive to severely aggressive. Thereby they believe my life span is on the order of weeks to a month, maybe two. Even with the chemotherapy I'm taking, it may only extend my life buy a few more weeks. It will be a miracle if I can make it long enough to try these newer drugs. We hope and pray this to be the case.

Clinical trial medications are free but transportation and lodging costs are patient's responsibility. Since it has become medically required to close the doctor's office, and I'm still recovering from aborted cancer surgery, income is severely limited. I burned up my savings, retirement, and investment accounts on travel and lodging for treatments, lost income from missed work, and high insurance deductibles.

Your kind gifts have allowed our family the reassurance that they won't starve. Additionally we have used a lot of the funds travelling from one trials location to another.

We leave this site up merely for those who wish to donate in memoriam

of Dr Lauer, as it seems I won't be beating this diagnosis of pancreas cancer. But we'll keep you updated on the prognosis.

Thank you for your kind compassion.

Adam Lauer, D.O.