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Team Save Our Scott

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S.O.S.  Team  Save. Our. Scott.

We are sending out an S.O.S., for Scott. We are Team Save Our Scott. Scott Duff is a son, a brother, a husband, a son-in-law, a father, a brother-in-law, an Uncle. Scott is married to Cyndi, and together they have 4 beautiful children. Scott, Cyndi and their children are surrounded by supportive, loving family members.


What started out as a pinched nerve in November of 2017 became an aggressive cancer diagnosis and a spinal lesion which required surgery in January 2018.  Since that time there have been multiple rounds of chemotherapy treatments, normal radiation treatments, treatment with tiny radioactive beads, more chemotherapy, and even more radiation treatments. So far, these treatments have not been successful. The doctors still don’t know the exact type of cancer Scott has, but there is a strong indication that it is bile duct cancer, which is a very rare type of cancer. The latest development is entry into a clinical trial at MD Anderson to use an existing immunotherapy drug on Scott’s particular type of cancer. The hope is that this clinical trial will work, and get Scott on the road to recovery. However, this means travel expense, work missed by Cyndi, and there are still bills to be paid, and other responsibilities which need to be done. In the event the clinical trial doesn’t work, it will require further, more severe chemotherapy treatments.


How can everyone help? Since his illness, Scott has been on reduced salary because of disability pay. They have been staying afloat by Cyndi working more hours, and with the help of family and friends. The funds raised from this GoFundMe are critical, as the funds will be used for things such as: outstanding medical bills, travel expenses to and from MD Anderson, clothing and school supplies for their 4 children, bills - perhaps help with their mortgage payments, as well as the maximum out-of-pocket expenses for insurance once the new year rolls around.


We, as family members to Scott, Cynthia, and their 4 children felt the urgency to share their story as his treatment has shifted into a clinical trial phase. Our goal is to help ease the financial burden for the Duff family.  We can do this by bringing family, friends, and the community together to help support his cancer treatments, medical care, and other necessary or unexpected expenses during this time.


We would be so grateful for any contribution made, big or small, to help Scott, Cynthia and their 4 children.


Our most sincerest Thanks, from the Montalvo, Duff, Ortiz, Garza and Alvarez families.

A more detailed account of Scott’s Journey...

In Nov 2017 Scott thought he had a pinched nerve in his back.  By mid Dec 2017 it was clear that it was something more than a pinched nerve.  A trip to the doctor in late Dec indicated elevated calcium levels in his blood.  Another trip to the doctor produced an X-ray that showed some spots on his lung and a CT scan thereafter indicated multiple spots on his liver as well, where he was then referred to an oncologist. The oncologist ordered a bone scan and an MRI early January 2018 that would encompass more of Scott’s head and torso, which indicated that there was a large lesion on Scott’s spine that needed immediate attention.  So, Scott was admitted to the hospital and two days later Scott underwent surgery and a biopsy of the tissue was sent off for testing to determine the type of cancer.  Scott’s oncologist wanted to start chemo right away, but there were still some areas of his spine that had tumors too small to operate on.  So, instead he started radiation to kill those small tumors.  After 10 days of radiation Scott started chemotherapy, but since the results weren’t in on precisely what type of cancer it was, he was put on a general set of chemo drugs that works on most cancers. After a few months on the chemo, it was determined that it wasn’t working, but luckily the type of cancer was narrowed down to “unknown primary, suspected cholangiocarcinoma” aka bile duct cancer.  Therefore his oncologist switched the chemo meds to ones that were more targeted to that particular cancer.  However, there was another problem, the cancer was most aggressive in Scott’s liver.  So they made a decision to try something called “SIRSpheres” which are tiny radioactive beads that get injected into the liver in just the right spot so that it affects the cancer cells primarily and doesn’t affect the healthy liver cells much.  Since radiation and chemotherapy are incompatible, the chemo had to be suspended in order to get the SIRSpheres.  After a bit of time, another round of chemo was given and then time for a CT scan to see if the procedure was successful.  Although there was some success, another lesion was found on his spine again, this time on his C2 and C3 vertebrae.  It managed to destroy the left side of the vertebrae where now only soft tissue is found and started to do some minimal damage on the right side.  Back to radiation he went in hopes that the cancer could be killed in that spot before it caused more damage.  Around this same time, Scott had spoken to his oncologist regarding MDAnderson where he was encouraged to receive a second opinion and with the hope that they could find a clinical trial to help Scott. He was also told that this was his window of opportunity as the concern for Scott’s liver continues. But this time, radiation caused severe irritation to the the throat making it raw and difficult to eat or drink.  On top of that, he developed thrush.  During this time, Cyndi was working on trying to get Scott into MDA.  After many times back and forth on the phone, Cyndi was finally able to get an appointment at MDA to see if Scott could enter a clinical trial that was sooner rather than months later.  Scott and Cyndi traveled to MDA and were seen by a doctor for entry into a clinical trial, but because of some malnourishment, first they had to re-hydrate Scott, reduce his blood calcium level, and solve the problem of pain in his throat so that he could eat again.   So, MDA took care of that and Scott is now entered into a clinical trial to see if a drug that is already approved for other forms of cancer will also work on his particular type of cancer.


We would be so grateful for any contribution made, big or small, to help Scott, Cynthia and their 4 children.


Our most sincerest Thanks, from the Montalvo, Duff, Ortiz, Garza and Alvarez families.
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Donations 

  • Rosa Harris
    • $100 
    • 5 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Trey Alvarez
Organizer
Corpus Christi, TX
Cynthia Duff
Beneficiary

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