Pancreatic Cancer is Curable

Introduction

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer and has a high mortality rate. However, there are some promising options available that can help patients diagnosed with this disease live longer and better. The key to successfully treating pancreatic cancer is early detection, which means knowing what to look for when seeking medical attention.

Identifying signs of pancreatic cancer

If you have any of the following symptoms, see your doctor as soon as possible:

  • Abdominal pain that is persistent and does not go away
  • Significant weight loss for no known reason
  • Back pain that doesn’t go away

If you suspect you may have pancreatic cancer, tell your doctor about it quickly. The sooner the diagnosis is made, the better chance there is for treatment to be effective.

Diagnosing and treating pancreatic cancer

Diagnosing pancreatic cancer can be difficult, as symptoms are often vague and similar to other conditions. When you visit your doctor for any reason, discuss your family history of pancreatic cancer and share any concerns that you may have about a possible diagnosis.

Your doctor will conduct a physical exam as well as diagnostic tests to determine if there’s a tumor in the pancreas or elsewhere in the body.

Treatment for pancreatic cancer depends on several factors including: the size of the tumor; where it is located; how fast it’s growing; whether it has spread (metastasized) to nearby lymph nodes or distant organs like lungs and liver; blood cell counts (if chemotherapy is used); and whether surgery can remove all of the tumor without damaging nearby organs such as intestines or blood vessels.

Getting a second opinion for pancreatic cancer

Getting a second opinion for pancreatic cancer is important. A second opinion can help you understand your situation and the options available to you, and it might give you some peace of mind.

When facing a serious diagnosis like pancreatic cancer, it’s natural to want to seek out as much information about your disease as possible. But it’s also important not to get overwhelmed by too much information or feel pressured into making decisions when you’re not ready. Getting a second opinion can provide further insight into what treatment options are available for someone with your particular type of pancreatic cancer—and how those treatments may be able to improve long-term survival rates.

Treatments for early stage pancreatic cancer

People with early-stage pancreatic cancer are usually treated with surgery. Surgery can be followed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. This treatment strategy is often successful, but not always: some people who have early-stage pancreatic cancer do not respond to this treatment approach and still need to undergo additional treatments.

For some people, surgery is not an option because their disease has spread beyond the pancreas to other organs and tissues in the body (metastasis). For others, surgery may be risky because it could cause serious complications such as infection, bleeding from an injury to nearby organs or nerves during surgery and damage to nerves that control digestion or blood flow from organs such as the stomach or intestines.

Whipple procedure for pancreatic cancer

The Whipple procedure is a surgical procedure that removes the pancreas, gallbladder, bile ducts, and part of the small intestine.

It is used to treat pancreatic cancer. It can also be used as a treatment for pancreatic cancer if you are not eligible for surgery or if your cancer has spread beyond your pancreas by the time of diagnosis.

Chemo for pancreatic cancer

Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals to destroy cancer cells. Chemo may be given intravenously (IV), or it can be injected directly into a vein, artery, or muscle. Chemotherapy drugs are given in cycles—meaning you receive treatment for several days followed by a rest period to allow your body to recover from any side effects before starting another round of chemo.

There are two types of chemotherapy: systemic and targeted therapy. Systemic chemotherapy uses powerful drugs that kill all fast-growing cells in your body, including cancer cells and healthy ones alike. Targeted therapies use monoclonal antibodies that target specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells and stop them from growing or dividing.

Radiation for pancreatic cancer

Radiation therapy is a type of treatment that uses high-energy beams of radiation to kill cancer cells, shrink tumors and relieve pain. Radiation therapy is generally given after surgery and chemotherapy. It can be used alone or in combination with chemotherapy as an adjuvant therapy, meaning it’s given in addition to the main treatment (surgery and/or chemotherapy) to help cure the disease or improve your ability to tolerate chemotherapy.

Radiation is usually given in a series of treatments over several weeks or months. The length of time between treatments depends on the type of radiation treatment you get, how many treatments you receive each week (known as fractionation), which part(s) of your body are treated (such as just one lung) and whether there’s a chance that cancer may return after receiving radiation therapy.

Radiotherapy can be given either externally from machines outside the body or internally from radioactive sources placed inside your body near where tumors are located. External radiation therapy works by focusing high-energy rays onto cancerous tissue near normal tissues; internal radiotherapy uses radioactive material placed inside the body near tumors for maximum effectiveness against these diseases at minimum risk for healthy parts nearby

Survival rates for pancreatic cancer

The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 8%, and the 10-year survival rate is less than 5%. The 20-year survival rate is less than 2%, although this statistic varies by stage.

The earlier you can detect and diagnose pancreatic cancer, the more likely you are to receive a positive outcome.

Pancreatic cancer is curable if detected early. If it is not detected early, however, the prognosis for pancreatic cancer is poor. Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst five-year survival rates of any type of cancer (3 to 5%).

Pancreatic Cancer can be hard to diagnose because:

  • Symptoms often don’t appear until it has spread throughout the body (metastasized).
  • Many symptoms are similar to other diseases or conditions such as stomach problems and diabetes.

This makes it a challenge for doctors who may not suspect this type of cancer when evaluating your symptoms. However, early detection significantly increases your chance for successful treatment and recovery from pancreatic cancer.

Conclusion

Whether you are a patient, or a loved one of someone who is suffering from pancreatic cancer, we want you to know that there is hope. The earlier you can detect and diagnose pancreatic cancer, the more likely you are to receive a positive outcome. By understanding some of the signs of this disease and seeking out treatment as soon as possible, it could save your life!