She's trying to outrun pancreatic cancer. Breakthrough treatments give her hope

"I have this drive and I want to keep going," says Vicky Stinson, 65, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2024. She's pictured here in a park in Charleston, S.C., on a visit in May 2026. Gavin McIntyre for NPR hide caption toggle caption Gavin McIntyre for NPR It took six months of doctors probing and repeatedly scanning her abdomen to find the cause of Vicky Stinson's jaundice. By the time a doctor uttered the words "pancreatic cancer," Stinson's disease was at Stage III. A doctor warned her she had "months – not years – to live." "That was really hard," Stinson, a self-proclaimed optimist, admits. "And I decided not to take that prognosis," she says with a laugh. Two years on, Stinson is defying the odds. "I have this drive and I want to keep going," says Stinson, 65, a retired landscape architect with the National Park Service who married her college sweetheart and loves water color painting and hiking in Flagstaff, Ariz., where she lives. Vicky Stinson is photographed in Hampton Park during a visit to Charleston, S.C. Stinson remains engaged with researchers and hopeful for new options to treat her pancreatic cancer. Gavin McIntyre for NPR hide caption toggle caption Gavin McIntyre for NPR Luckily for Stinson, researchers are breaking through with pancreatic cancer — a disease notoriously hard to detect and treat. …