5fu Chemotherapy

Prevalence  

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in adults, accounting for an estimated 42,470 new cases and 35,240 deaths in the United States for 2009. The high mortality is due to the high incidence of metastatic disease at the time of initial diagnosis, the aggressive clinical evolution and the failure of current therapies.

Causes

It is not known what causes pancreatic cancer, but some risk factors have been associated with the disease. Modifiable risk factors that were associated with pancreatic cancer are:

• Smokers to smoke: you risk 2-3 times higher of developing cancer of the pancreas .. Approximately 2-3 out of 10 cases of pancreatic cancer are thought to be caused by smoking.
• People who are overweight obesity and lack of exercise, and those who did not get much exercise are more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.
• Diabetes: Patients with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of developing cancer of the pancreas.
• Chronic pancreatitis: Some patients with chronic pancreatitis develop pancreatic cancer
• Cirrhosis of the liver: People with cirrhosis due to hepatitis and alcohol seem to have an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
• occupational exposure: A high exposure to certain pesticides, dyes and chemicals may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.
• Stomach problems: Having too much stomach acid or have a bacterium called H. pylori in the stomach may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Prevention

Currently, there is no way to prevent cancer of the pancreas. Similar to other cancer prevention, smoking cessation, healthy eating and exercise are important in the maintenance of pancreatic cancer at a distance.

The symptoms of pancreatic cancer

It is very difficult to find pancreatic cancer early in the disease since the pancreas is located deep inside the body and it is not easy to kill tumors during a routine medical examination. Currently, there are no blood tests or other tests that can find pancreatic cancer early in patients without symptoms.

When a person has symptoms, the cancer is usually large and spread to other organs. Thus, patients with pancreatic cancer usually have a vision poor.

The symptoms of pancreatic cancer jaundice, abdominal (stomach area) pain in the middle of the back, weight loss, pale, greasy stools, swollen gallbladder, blood clots and increased levels of sugar in the blood .

Physical examination

To determine whether the tumor is cancerous, the doctor will do a biopsy to confirm the types of cells.

The doctor may also examine lymph nodes and the conduct of imaging tests such as CT, MRI, PET, endoscopic ultrasonography, ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) to see if the tumor has spread to lymph nodes or distant organs.

Prognosis  

Only 20% of patients with pancreatic cancer is the tumor is operable. The median disease-free survival after complete resection of pancreatic cancer and adjuvant administration of gemcitabine was 13.4 months against 6.9 months for untreated patients. The disease-free survival after surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, unfortunately, did not translate into any advantage in overall survival.

For other patients who had locally advanced (40%) or metastatic (40%) disease at diagnosis, median survival is 8-12 months and 3-6 months respectively.  

Treatment

Surgery

surgery for pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult for the surgeon and patients. Surgical complications and results may take several weeks for Pat.