There Are No Cures For Pancreatic Cancer
Unfortunately, there are no true cures for pancreatic cancer. There are treatments, but no cures. Pancreatic cancer affects over 30,000 people in the United States every year, and this statistic is increasing. Though most people undergo treatments for the disease, greater than 29,000 of those diagnosed die within 5 to 12 months. The fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, pancreatic cancer is truly a formidable foe. Also, the treatments, despite years of research in the field, have little effect on the survival rates of pancreatic cancer patients. The treatments really only serve to ease tumor symptoms, though they bring side effects and complications oftentimes equal in severity to the cancer's symptoms.
When diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the most common treatment option is surgery. The usual type of surgery, called potentially curative surgery, is one that removes the growth. Because of this, it is also the preferred treatment method. However, doctors employ it only after imaging and needle biopsy tests confirm that the tumor is operable and that the surgeons have a high percentage chance of removing the cancer.
Pancreatic cancer tumors that fall into both of these categories are typically found on the head of the pancreas. Their symptoms, weight loss, jaundice, abdominal pain, depression, and early satiety, appear early in the tumor's growth. Thus doctors can usually catch the neoplasm in before it reaches later and untreatable stages. When tumors grow on the body or tail of the pancreas, their symptoms usually only surface after the cancer is far advanced. Thus the surgery is rarely of use on growth in those areas.
The main surgery used for pancreatic cancer is the pancreaticoduodenectomy, or the Whipple procedure. It entails the removal of the cancerous growths from the pancreas. The pancreas head, the gallbladder, and the sections of the stomach, small intestine, lymph nodes, and common bile duct are removed with the growths. This is intended to prevent the cancer from spreading and to ensure that all, or almost all, cancer is taken out. The procedure is risky at best, with complications killing about 2 to 5 percent of patients even when they have the operation performed in the best facilities and with the best surgeons. In other facilities and with less-skilled doctors, about 15 percent die from complications. Even after the surgery, only 20 percent of patients live longer than 5 years. It is hardly a cure for pancreatic cancer. The other types of pancreas surgery are distal pancreatectomy and total pancreatectomy. In the first, though they are rarely used in cancer patients. The distal pancreatectomy removes the tail and lower body of the pancreas. A total pancreatectomy removes the entire pancreas. Palliative surgery, the last type, only treats tumors' symptoms. It cures one of the main symptom, jaundice. When tumors grow at the pancreas head, they block the bile duct. To remedy this, surgeons reroute the bile duct into the small intestine, allowing bile to flow. Along with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are used. The current chemo drug, which is replacing the formerly popular 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), is gemcitabine, usually called Gemzar. Other drugs are combined with Gemzar. The main radiation type is Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, or IMRT. None of these are cures for pancreatic cancer. They extend a patient's life by a few months, but rarely do they eradicate the cancer. Their main purpose is to provide palliative care, reducing or eliminating some of the tumor's symptoms.
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