21      Autoimmune Pancreatitis

Autoimmune Pancreatitis was first identified in 1995, but it was largely unknown in the US at the time of this story in 2015. It was considered to be extremely rare.

Six years later, it had come to be more widely recognized.  

Symptoms often improve after a short course of prednisolone or prednisone. Many people respond quickly, even dramatically.

The man wondered what would have happened to him if he had been not been diagnosed with Autoimmune Pancreatitis and had been treated instead for Pancreatic Cancer.

Of all of the people who have not survived Pancreatic Cancer, how many of them had actually had Autoimmune Pancreatitis? How many of them had suffered unnecessarily, even died, from the high risk procedures associated with Pancreatic Cancer?