“My maternal grandfather had pancreatic cancer. his brother also had pancreatic cancer and my mom had uterine cancer and brain cancer.”
Those are the risk factors that drove Graig Diamond to get tested for BRCA and Lynch Syndrome. After getting positive results, he entered the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Program at Yale Medicine.
“If something does happen, I want to catch it early. I want to give myself the best chance,” Diamond said.
He works with Dr. James Farrell and Scott Merenda, BSN, at the clinic where patients like Graig may have multiple exams and tests per year.
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“This is ongoing surveillance to maintain the health of their pancreas,” Merenda said.
Pancreatic cancer is often discovered in later stages, so the goal of the clinic is to take a whole look at the patient’s family history and genetic screening.
“We’re able to counsel the patient and say to them ‘you know there’s a significant risk here for either colon cancer or pancreatic cancer or some other type of cancer,’” Farrell said. He’s the director of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Clinic.
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He adds that the potential BRCA and lynch Syndrome impacts can expand beyond breast and ovarian cancers.
“Most people are familiar with the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 to the risk factors associated with the development of breast cancer and ovarian cancer,” Farrell said. “But in fact, those two genes are also associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in both men and women, as well as prostate cancer.”
Being part of this program, along with his family history are the reasons why Diamond signed up for his first Closer to Free Ride this year. The avid cyclist is signed up for 65 miles on September 7.
“I’ve done other rides in the area, and I always see a lot of Closer to Free jerseys on the ride.”
He says he’s looking forward to the ride, including seeing what it’s like outside of Smilow Cancer Hospital, where patients and staff cheer on riders.
“There are probably a lot of moments in this hospital that are really tough moments, and I think that should be a really happy moment.”
All of the money raised during Closer to Free goes to Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center for patient support programs, treatment and research. Farrell says it’s an important event in the overall fight against cancer.
“First of all, to improving awareness of what’s going on as well as bringing the community together to understand that this is a group effort, be it financially or resource wise, to try and help our patients.”
Although the clinic isn’t part of Smilow or Yale Cancer Center, Diamond says it’s still important to support the cancer community and those who are working to keep him going for years to come.
“There’s certainly going to be people that I’m thinking about during this ride and people that I’m riding for, but mostly I’m riding to support the people here,” he said. “Knowing your family history, getting the genetic tests, getting proper surveillance is just so important.”
