2-time cancer survivor thankful for UT MD Anderson’s guidance and expertise

When Armando Gallegos was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer at age 52, he was shocked. Cancer did not run in his family.

He’d visited a clinic near his home in Austin for swelling in his neck. He had imaging and was referred to a local thyroid surgeon, who told Armando it wasn’t just a small thyroid issue. He was then referred to a specialized clinic in Austin.

“They told me it was likely cancer, and they weren’t comfortable doing surgery because, due to the large size of the tumor, it would require a team of experts who specialized in cancer,” recalls Armando, a married father of two. “I was crying, taking all of it in, when the doctor asked me if I could travel to Houston. I told them I could, and they referred me to UT MD Anderson. One of the nurses helped me set up my first appointment.”

Clinical trial helps treat thyroid cancer

Armando traveled to Houston with his wife, Reina, whom he affectionately calls Vicky. They met head and neck surgeon Anastasios Maniakas, M.D., Ph.D., on March 6, 2024.

Armando quickly knew he’d found the right doctor.

“I went into the appointment feeling down, thinking I was going to die from this disease. Then Dr. Maniakas walked in, and it was the first positive light I’d had since my diagnosis,” recalls Armando. “He told me he specialized in treating thyroid cancer and does these types of surgeries all the time. He really put me at ease and assured me I’d be fine. I told Vicky, ‘I’m going to be all right. This doctor will do his magic.’”

At the time, Armando weighed about 430 pounds, which is considered obese. Maniakas encouraged him to lose as much weight as possible to reduce risks during surgery, like blood clots or breathing difficulties.

Armando also met endocrine specialist Ramona Dadu, M.D., who told him about a clinical trial that was evaluating how well the targeted therapy lenvatinib worked when given to thyroid cancer patients before surgery. 

“I walked out of the appointment thinking that I just had to take a pill once a day for a few months to shrink the tumor,” he says.

Armando took lenvatinib for two months, and it reduced the tumor by 25%. He lost 60 pounds by sticking to a low-carb diet and limiting sweets.

At the end of May, Armando had to have an emergency appendectomy after his appendix ruptured. He spent a week at home recovering. Then, on June 3, 2024, Maniakas performed a total thyroidectomy and neck dissection. He removed a tumor the size of a small melon and 90 lymph nodes from Armando’s neck. The surgery took 12 hours.

Because of the clinical trial available at UT MD Anderson, doctors were able to shrink the tumor and improve surgical outcomes. All of Armando’s critical nerves and vascular structures came out fully intact.

“My wife and youngest son were there, and they said every couple of hours, someone would give them an update,” he says. “They never felt like they were there alone.”

Armando spent three nights in the hospital and then went home to Austin, where he spent a month recovering. After that, things returned to normal, and he enjoyed watching his youngest son play college football.

A pancreatic cancer diagnosis

In December 2024, Armando began having what he thought was severe heartburn. A CT scan in January didn’t show anything concerning.

“My doctor thought maybe I had diverticulitis or a fatty liver, and with me still being on the heavier side, I thought that might be right,” he says.

But when he returned to the doctor in March, he still wasn’t given a definitive diagnosis. And when his coworkers noticed his skin turning yellow, Armando went to the emergency room. A CT scan revealed a blockage in his bile duct.

The doctor explained that his yellow skin was due to elevated bilirubin in his blood, which was caused by the blockage. The blockage was also causing his abdominal pain. 

Unfortunately, the blockage turned out to be a pancreatic tumor.

“That was the scariest thing I’d been told,” says Armando, who recalled a famous actor who’d faced pancreatic cancer. “If a rich and beloved celebrity like him died from this cancer, what chance would I have?”

Lifestyle changes to help prepare for pancreatic cancer surgery

Armando knew he wanted to go to UT MD Anderson. He reached out to Dadu and told her of his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. She referred him to Rebecca Snyder, M.D., a surgical oncologist specializing in pancreatic cancer.

Snyder recommended chemotherapy to help shrink the tumor before surgery. She also wanted him to lose 100 pounds because, at his current weight, it would be too hard to safely perform pancreatic surgery.

So, Armando met with internal medicine specialist Zayd Razouki, M.D., who leads a weight management program here at UT MD Anderson. Razouki provided guidance on how to safely lose weight. He spoke about the importance of a healthy diet, exercise and using a fitness tracker to keep up with his progress.

Armando underwent eight cycles of FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy. By the time he completed chemotherapy, he had already lost 90 pounds in a healthy way.

“I have to credit Dr. Razouki because he introduced me to counting macros, and that made the weight loss easier for me,” he says. “Vicky was amazing. At the grocery store, she would make sure to look at the amount of protein, carbs and fat in everything, and she cooked healthy meals for me on Sunday that I would eat throughout the week.”

He ate a lot of turkey, fish and spinach. On days when he was craving something sweet, he’d have sugar-fee gelatin or zero sugar frozen whipped topping. He tried to eat less than 30 grams of fat each day.

In November, A CT scan showed some slight inflammation in Armando’s pancreas, so Snyder had him stop chemotherapy. Instead, he completed 10 sessions of radiation therapy at a facility near Austin.

On Jan. 6, 2026, he underwent a 10-hour Whipple procedure in which Snyder removed the head of his pancreas, bile duct, duodenum, gallbladder and 28 lymph nodes. There were clear margins, the cancer had responded to chemotherapy and radiation, and only one of the 27 lymph nodes came back as cancerous.

Armando and his wife stayed in Houston for two weeks while he recovered before going home to Austin.  

Embracing life with positivity and gratitude

After his Whipple procedure, Armando completed an additional four cycles of FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy. This was given to destroy any microscopic cancer cells that may remain and to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back.

He is back at work and looks forward to resuming activities he enjoys, like going to his son’s football practices and games. He had gotten down to 262 pounds before his surgery and has maintained his weight loss.

Armando was glad to learn that UT MD Anderson will begin providing cancer care in Austin at UT Dell Medical Center in a few years.

“I’ve felt so blessed that we’re just a few hours’ drive to Houston, but getting that same level of care close to home will be great,” he says. “Hopefully, by then, I’ll just be getting yearly checkups and no new cancer diagnoses!”

Throughout everything, he says, the support from Vicky, coworkers and friends has been critical. Sometimes he thinks about cancer recurrence, but he keeps a positive mindset and focuses on the present.

“Dr. Brandon Smaglo, my medical oncologist, says if pancreatic cancer comes back, it’s usually within the first two years after treatment,” he says. “So, if I get past the first two years, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief. Everybody says I look good post-surgery, and I see a lot of pancreatic cancer survivors on social media sharing their experiences. So, my plan is to keep enjoying life and hope I’m one of the lucky ones.”  

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