Butler boy fighting rare form of cancer
Aiden Bartley is a typical 9-year-old boy. A fourth-grader at McQuiston Elementary School, he loves to play dek hockey and hockey video games.
What sets Aiden apart is he’s one of only two children in the United States to be diagnosed with the adult form of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, a cancer of the pancreas.
His mother, Megan Bartley, said this type of cancer is incredibly difficult to detect. In Aiden’s case, she said by the time the cancer was correctly identified, “it had spread to the liver and the lymph nodes surrounding the pancreas, so it’s considered stage 4.”
Aiden’s journey from dek hockey games to rounds of chemotherapy began in October when he had an upset stomach.
“We thought it was just nerves or acid reflux,” said his mother. She and her husband, Mike Bartley, scheduled an appointment with a gastroenterologist when Aiden didn’t get better.
But two days before his appointment, Aiden turned jaundiced which led to a quick trip to the emergency room.
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