Know About Pancreatic Cancer Symptoms, Signs And Treatment

Pancreas is an organ which is a part of digestive system in the human body. This is responsible for producing insulin.

Table of Contents

What is insulin?

Well, insulin is a hormone that is needed by the body to control the blood sugar levels. Pancreas also make some o digestive juices which are needed to digest the food and some other hormones are also produced other than insulin. The enzymes which are present in the digestive juices help in breakdown of the complex food into simple forms like carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.

Well, why we are discussing about the functioning of the pancreas here. This is because in this article we will be discussing the importance of pancreas and a life threatening disease which is associated with it. In this article we will deal with the pancreatic cancer and the symptoms of this form of cancer.

What do we exactly mean by pancreatic cancer?

We all have heard a lot of about cancer and this is a form of cancer which takes place in the pancreas. It is present in form of an exocrine tumors and by far this is the simplest pancreatic cancer. Scientifically these exocrine tumors are referred as adenocarcinomas.

According to the statistical data of different medical survey conducted by top medical organization approximately 43,000 people suffered from this type of medical condition in year 2010 within the United States. Among those patient that were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer around 36, 800 people dies due to this disease.

This is very bad; in spite of such advanced medical techniques life of those people could not be saved. The reason is the late diagnosis of the disease symptoms. Actually in most of the cases people are still unaware about the symptoms of pancreatic cancer.

They are still ignorant and that is the reason they fail to recognize the pancreatic cancer signs when it becomes too late for them. The pancreatic cancer spreads in the stomach and other parts of the abdomen which cannot be treated using any kind of invasive treatment methods.

It is very important that people must learn the various early signs of pancreatic cancer so that they can identify it at the initial stage and they can get right invasive treatment with the recommendation of doctor.

Pancreas is one of the vital organs of the body and you all must take care of its health. This organ is located in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen.

As I told you that play a vital role in the process of digestion so you can have the problems related to the digestive system if you suffer from the pancreatic cancer. It also produces the hormone insulin which is a vital hormone and it regulates the blood sugar level.

If anyone suffers from the pancreatic cancer then the person is likely to suffer from the serious health conditions. You can have the problem of diabetes in which the sugar level increases and the patient can even die if insulin is not supplied from external source.

When there is abnormal growth in cells of pancreas then Pancreatic cancer can develop. The abnormal cell growth is also referred to as malignant neoplasm. Well there are two type of pancreatic cancer and they are: exocrine pancreas cancers and endocrine pancreas cancers.

See there are two main part of the pancreas and they have different functions. The exocrine part of the pancreas produces the digestive juices and enzymes that are needed during the digestion of food. The second part is known as the endocrine pancreas and it is responsible for the production of hormone insulin.

It has been found that the cancer tumors are located at the part of pancreas which produces enzymes meaning the exocrine pancreas. We have might learned about the various types of cancers but you do not know the fact which is that this pancreatic cancer is stands at forth position for taking the lives of many people all over the world.

Pancreatic cancer leads to death among cancer patients globally. The people who suffer from this form of cancer usually have a five-year survival. This survival period can increase or decrease depending on the pancreatic cancer stages.

It also depends on the type of cancer treatment method given to the patient.It is very vital that every must learn what causes pancreatic cancer and the symptoms as well so that they can identify those symptoms at early stage.

Pancreatic cancer symptoms in men can be different from the symptoms of pancreatic cancer in women and that is the reason why you should learn them separately.Pancreatic cancer symptom

Do you have question in your mind ‘what are symptoms of pancreatic cancer’?

Well, symptoms of this form of cancer can largely depend on the location and the size of tumor. Pancreatitis cancer symptoms are not significantly visible at the early stages of the disease. This is the main reason why cancer develops inside the pancreas and therefore it is names as the ‘silent killer’.

As the cancer grow in the exocrine part of the pancreas the symptoms will become profound and can be detected easily if one is aware with them. Patient having the pancreatic cancer at advanced stages suffer from the abdominal pain. This pain is very intense and it radiates up to the back of the patient.

The tumor present over the exocrine location of pancreas presses the intestine when it grows. The pressure that is build by the tumor leads to nausea in patients. A patient suffers from vomiting and loss of appetite. All these symptoms eventually result in the weight loss. Increasing size of the tumor can also put more pressure on the common bile duct and it can even obstruct it.

If it happens then the color of skin of the patient changes to yellow and eye color also changes.These are the symptoms of jaundice and when the patient suffers from this disease then the stool is pale-colored stool. The color of urine of patient gets darkened and it can itchy too.Pancreatic Cancer signs and symptoms and places associated with it Here we are discussing about the Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer that emerge first.

Weight loss

Whenever you suffer from the shedding weight then you should consider it as a serious problem. You can continue losing weight if you suffer from any kind of cancer. In the cancers of head to the cancer in pancreas weight loss is the common and widespread symptom of pancreatic cancer which all most all the patients suffer. Weight loss indicates that there is something wrong happening inside their body. It gives the patient a progressive feeling of illness.

Discomfort in the abdomen

About 7 out of 10 patients of pancreatic cancer experience discomfort and pain in their abdomen. Perhaps this is the first pancreatic cancer symptom which is appears and patient visit their doctor for seeking medical advice. When the patient feels some pain in discomfort in the belly area which is radiating towards the back then they visit the doctor for the first time.

The abdominal pain is more when the patient taken his/ her meals. The pain in the abdomen is consistent for 3 to 4 hours followed after eating meals. The pain can get worsened if the size of the tumor increases and the cancer cells attack your liver and gallbladder. The gallbladder gets enlarged or inflamed due to the infection caused by the tumor on the exocrine pancreas.

Jaundice

This is the most common medical condition that more than 50 percent patients of pancreatic cancer suffer from. When they visit their doctors for the very first time then they have already fighting with jaundice. Do you know what jaundice is? Well it is the yellowing of the skin and the white part of the eyes. The urines get darkened and the bowel motions may be light in color.

If the head of the tumor is towards the pancreas then it blocks the bile duct and due to this blockage patient suffers from the Jaundice. Whether the bile duct is partially blocked or fully blocked patient suffer from the jaundice frequently. This is a medical ailment which is specifically associated with the malfunctioning of liver and gall bladder.

If you want to know about the pancreatic cancer treatment options for pancreatic cancer then for your kind information I must tell you that there are three treatment methods which are: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

The goal of all these three treatment method is to eliminate the tumor and give the patient relief from the current symptoms of the cancer. Doctors recommend surgery when the success rate is more. In the surgery the affected part of the pancreas or in worst conditions the whole of the pancreas are removed.

If the pancreas are removed completely then the patient will suffer from the diabetes disease. The body will not able to tackle this problem as there will be no insulin produced inside the body. The blood sugar will increase and it can lead to the complications.

Chemotherapy is done when the cancer is already metastasized. In this treatment combination of radiotherapy and drugs are used to kill the cancer cells completely. The patient can have some side effects due to the chemotherapy.