Pancreatic cancer can show various symptoms or signs to people in the body. Majority of the time, symptoms are not apparent until the cancer has developed and spread in the area. These symptoms that develop are not specific in the pancreas, because they mirror other problems. If the cancer is in the head of the pancreas, it can cause symptoms like nausea, jaundice, weight loss, itching, dark urine, abdominal pain, back pain, light stool color, and vomiting. In the body or tail of the pancreas, the symptoms could be weight loss and belly and/or back pain. Most of the time, if the cancer is in the head of the pancreas, the symptoms will appear more often than those in the body and tail.
Doctors and scientists do not know the cause of pancreatic cancer. However, they do know the risk factors that may cause it. There is a higher risk of developing the cancer when a person has the symptoms. The risk factors could be some other health problem and not cancer. Once your doctor knows your risk factors, he/she can help in developing a plan and lifestyle to decrease the risks. Many risk factors include age, gender, race/ethnicity, smoking, obesity and diet, diabetes, and family history. Most people that have pancreatic cancer are older than forty-five and men have a higher chance of obtaining the cancer than women. Black people have a higher risk that Hispanic, white people, or Asian of getting pancreatic cancer. If you are a smoker, there is a two-thirds chance of developing it than nonsmokers. Researchers have determined that people, who are obese, because of their diet, have a higher risk of developing the cancer and dying from it. People that suddenly get type 2 diabetes could be an early symptom of getting the...
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...e of cancer, pancreatic cancer. An estimated 45, 220 adults in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year. An estimation of deaths from this disease is about 38, 460 deaths. This makes the cancer the tenth most common cancer in men and the ninth most common cancer in women. It also makes the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men and women. Since pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose, it is frequently not found until the later stages, when the cancer can no longer be removed with surgery. The survival rate is very tragic in this condition. An overall one-year survival rate of people surviving pancreatic cancer is twenty-six percent and the five-year survival rate of people surviving pancreatic cancer is roughly six percent. If the cancer is spotted at an early stage, the five-year survival rate is nearly twenty-two percent.
When you think of the repercussions of smoking you often think of lung cancer, but smoking also increases your chances of getting pancreatic cancer by almost 50%. You are twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer if you smoke than you would if you didn't. In addition, overweight people are twenty percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer can also be hereditary, and you can be at a higher risk because of an inherited syndrome. African American people are also more susceptible to pancreatic cancer, the cause for this is not
The pancreas is an elongated and flattened gland located within the abdomen. Not only is it a vital part of the digestive system, but it is also a key controller of blood sugar levels. (The Pancreas). The pancreas has been divided into four regions which are the head, neck, body, and tail. Being the widest part of the pancreas, the head is twenty-three millimeters. The part of the head that hooks towards the back of the abdomen is the uncinate (Chronic Pancreatitis Imaging). Between the head and body of the pancreas is the neck, which is about nineteen millimeters. The body of the pancreas is twenty millimeters, between the neck and the tail. The tail is the smallest part of the pancreas, measuring at only fifteen millimeters. (Parts of the Pancreas). The length of the pancreas in total ranges from four point seven to seven point one inches. The pancreas also weighs from seventy to one-hundred grams (How does the Pancreas Work?).
As I stated before, it is really no use in trying to treat stage III and IV pancreatic cancer because death is inevitable in these cases. However, in stage III, palliative surgery and stent placements to bypass clogged areas in the ducts or small intestine are used. Chemotherapy and chemoradiation are used also. In stage IV, palliative treatments like nerve blocks and stent placements are used to relieve pain. Clinical trials (a type of research study that tests how well new medical approaches work in people) are tried and tested on these patients also.
Liver cancer is a common form of cancer that affects approximately 30,650 new individuals each year (1). The most common form of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is more predominate in men over women. Along with gender, age also is a large role in the probability of getting HCC. Generally, most of the individuals that are diagnosed with liver cancer are 45 and older, with an average age of 63 (1). Another nonmodifiable factors that can lead to HCC is ethnicity. The risk of having liver cancer greatly increases if you are from the Pacific Islands or are an Asian American (2). Some common behavioral risk factors that can increase an individual’s change of getting HCC are alcohol consumption, type 2 diabetes, chronic viral hepatitis, and obesity (1). While all of these factors can lead to liver cancer, obesity has become more popular recently with an increase in the amount of overweight individuals. In the last decade alone, over one billion people worldwide are estimated to be overweight (5). In the research articles used, BMI was the common tool to determine if an individual was overweight or obese.
Pancreatic Cancer is the third deadliest cancer in the world. The disease gets much less funding and recognition than many cancers that are nowhere near a deadly as Pancreatic Cancer. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network also helped establish the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition.
Many cancer diagnoses have high percentage of survival rate with proper treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. However, there is one considerable cancer diagnosis that ultimately has a very low percentage of survival. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. By 2020, pancreatic cancer is estimated to be the second leading cause of cancer death (Pancreatic Cancer Network, 2014). Pancreatic cancer accounts for a very small percentage of the cancers diagnosed each year; however has a less than 5% five-year survival rate. This is greatly due to the demographics of the pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
According to Cancer.org, cancer is the generic name for over a hundred diseases. There are cancers for literally every part of the body. Cancer starts by abnormal cells growing out of control. Usually, if the cancer is caught earlier in the stages, it is treatable and a person would have a good chance at surviving. Unfortunately, if the cancer is untreated for a longer duration of time, the survival rate dwindles. There are types of this abnormal cell growth that can be potentially more fatal than others. There is an astonishing amount of different cancers to delve in to. Bone cancer and lung cancer are very common in this day and age. The chance of survival depends on the type, as well as the amount of time it has gone untreated.
Some symptoms for colon cancer are, change in your bowel habits, including diarrhea or constipation, rectum bleeding or blood in your stool, constant abdominal discomfort, such as cramps, gas or pain, a feeling that your bowel doesn't empty completely, weakness or tiredness, and or unexplained weight loss. Many people with colon cancer experience no signs of sickness in the early stages of the disease. When signs of sickness appear, they'll likely differ, depending on the cancer's size and location in the large intestine.
Although there are many causes of Pancreatic Cancer, there are also various ways to prevent the risk of being diagnosed with this often preventable disease.
Although is second it has the most cases of death than other cancers like breast, prostate, and colon. About 160,000 people in the United States are not going to survive from lung cancer. This is about 27% of of all the cancer. Males are less likely to survive from lung than females. Also there is a higher chance of blacks that don’t survive lung cancer than whites. Lung cancer is diagnosed in the elderly. More than 50% of lung cancer patients die within a year.
Another problem people have with the pancreas is pancreatic cancer. Each year about 29,000 Americans and 3,000 Canadians are diagnosed with it.
The earliest discovery of Pancreatic Cancer is linked back to the 18th century by Giovanni Battista. Pancreatic cancer occurs when cells in your pancreas develop mutations in their DNA. These mutations cause cells to grow uncontrollably and to continue living after normal cells would die. These accumulating cells can form a tumor. The p53 and BRCA2 genes make a protein that slows or prevents growth of normal cells and protects the cells against cancer.The p53 tumor suppressor is one of our defenses against this type of damage. Tumor suppressor genes, a mutation (an abnormal change in the gene) of the p53 and BRCA-2 gene induces cells to produce abnormal proteins that alters the growth of the cell. Recent studies have suggested that BRCA2
Smoking is one of the most significant risk factors for pancreatic cancer. The danger of getting pancreatic cancer is around twice as high between smokers compared to those who have never smoked. Around 20% to 30% of pancreatic cancers are supposed to be produced by cigarette smoking. Cigar and pipe smoking also raise risk, also use of smokeless tobacco products. (4)
In early stages of pancreatic cancer, only mild symptoms arise, if the patient experiences any symptoms at all. These mild symptoms can be as innocuous as a stomach ache. Later in its progress, “pancreatic cancer can by characterized by: pain in the upper abdomen, jaundice (icterus), dark urine, weakness, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss” (Pathology 232) Many of the changes in physical appearance, such as dark urine and yellow jaundiced skin, are due to the build-up of bilirubin in the body. According to the American Cancer Society, bilirubin is:
one-third of all cases of pancreatic cancer are caused by people smoking. Smoking can cause a lot more problems than just pancreatic cancer. Because some tumors do not show signs or symptoms, it makes it hard to diagnose. Some symptoms consist of jaundice, pain in the abdomen, weight loss, diarrhea, inflammation in the pancreas, bloating, vomiting, weakness, and blood clots. Just because you may show a couple of those symptoms, does not mean that you 100% have pancreatic cancer. Even if you do not show any of those symptoms, that does not mean you do not have a risk of getting pancreatic cancer. The size of the pancreatic tumors depends, if by pressing on the surrounding nerves creates pain. The more pain the bigger the tumor is. People with diabetes develop pancreatic cancer twice as often as nondiabetics. Being overweight or obesity is a big risk factor. Even being exposed to certain types of chemicals can create pancreatic cancer. Between the ages 60-80, is when most people get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 80% of the time. Males are twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer than