Cause and Effects of Pancretic Cancer

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.