Pancreatic Cancer
PANCREATIC CANCER
History of Pancreatic Cancer
Cancer of the Pancreas is a malignant neoplasm coming from transformed cells occurring in tissues that form the pancreas. In the United States, this cancer is the fourth most general cause of cancer-related fatalities in the United States. There are several types of pancreatic cancer and the most well-known type is the adenocarcinoma. The person who discovered this condition is still unknown. However, physicians from the ancient Greece, Egypt, and China accepted this condition and recognized as a condition with unacceptable effect. Moreover, these people from ancient times may seem to be unaware of a cancerous development in the pancreas, which cause this condition (yukozimo.com).
Centuries have passed and a physician named Giovanni Battista Morgagni was the first physician who discovered these tumors. After several decades, a first case of surgical operation was reported in 1879 regarding pancreatic cancer. This was after a physician was able to drain in a pancreatic tumor from ailing patient (yukozimo.com).
Furthermore, an essential advancement studying the pancreatic cancer was conducted by Wynder along with his team during the twentieth century (yukozimo.com). During their research, they discovered that carcinogens coming into the bile are the one causing the cancer in the pancreas. Current advancements in the pancreatic file has been developed for early discovery along with new approach about the development of the tumor, and developing techniques to fight against the resistance of this condition to chemotherapy. Doctor Hingorani was the one who developed a promising technique and model to detect as well as to treat pancreatic cancer (yukozimo.com).
Causes of Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is primarily is a condition in which a result of DNA damage. While it is practically impossible to say what really caused some person to have cancer development in the pancreas, there are some essential ideologies of cancer biology, which helps people understand why this condition develops. Most of the people who suffer from pancreatic cancer have an inherited cancer pattern either from their mother or father (jhu.edu). As these people get older, part of their genes in the cell in the pancreas that came either of their parents will be damaged. The damaged cell will have two copies of the gene; so as a result, cell in the pancreas will turn into a cancer (jhu.edu).
These are not constant cases. A person may not automatically develop a pancreatic if he or she inherited part of his or her bad genes from either of their parents. There are factors that would contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer, and that is our behavior.
Cigarette smoking doubles the pancreatic cancer risk. Smoking is also connected with an early diagnosis of this condition. In other words, smoking is the leading avoidable cause of pancreatic cancer. In reality, many scientists have discovered that one out of five cases of this condition is because of cigarette smoking (jhu.edu). Chronic pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas for a long period of time, which also causes the pancreatic cancer (jhu.edu).
Another common cause of this cancer is diabetes. That is because diabetes is a symptom of this condition. In fact, adults who suffer from onset and long-standing diabetes have high risk of pancreatic cancer (jhu.edu). Significantly, obesity also increases the risk of getting pancreatic cancer.
Another controllable cause of pancreatic cancer is the food we eat or our diet. Foods that are high in meats, fried foods that are high in cholesterol and nitrosamines (chemical compounds that most of which are carcinogenic) are possible cause of pancreatic cancer (jhu.edu).
Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer
Exocrine tumors are the most common types of pancreatic cancer. A person who has this type of condition may not be aware of his current system condition as some of the symptoms are indistinguishable. The symptoms also vary depending on which part of a person’s pancreas has cancer as it can be in the body, head or tail. However, early symptoms may include stomach pain, weight loss or jaundice (cancerresearchuk.org).
People who were diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas normally lost a lot of weight for no clear reason, but this symptom commonly occurs if the head of the pancreas is the one affected by cancer. On the other hand, stomach pain, as the pancreas is located in the stomach area, is the common symptom of this condition. Patients would describe the pain as if it is dull and boring into the patient. Also, jaundice appears to be with almost fifty percent of the patients who initially go to their doctors due to yellowing of their white eyes and skin (cancerresearchuk.org).
Jaundice is commonly present as one of the symptoms if the head of the pancreas is the one affected by cancer, which is because the tumor is blocking the bile duct. Cancerresearch.org explains that the tube is the one carrying the bile (which is yellow in color) to the person’s duodenum. If it is blocked, bile’s yellow pigment ends up in the blood stream that is why it turns the patients white eyes and skin to yellowish color.
Additionally, some other symptoms of the pancreatic cancer are diabetes, sickness, itching, fever along with shivering, and even bowel changes (cancerresearchuk.org).
Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic can be treated depending on the stage and type of cancer a person has. A patient may need not just one type of treatment. In a patient’s cancer treatment team, it may include the surgeon. This is the doctor who uses surgery in treating cancers and other health problems. An endocrinologist may also be included as he is the one who treats hormones secreting glands under a specific disease (cancer.org).
The main types of treating the pancreatic cancer are through surgery, radiation therapy, ablative techniques (such as radiofrequency ablation; cryosurgery, microwave thermotherapy and embolization), and chemotherapy along with other medicines (cancer.org).
On-going Research about Pancreatic Cancer
Doctors and researchers are continuously working to learn more developments in fighting against cancer including the cancer of the pancreas and to know more about how to prevent this kind of health condition. An early detection of the disease is better when it comes to treating pancreatic cancer. The focuses of the ongoing research is to find and use unique blood tests, imaging tools for diagnostics, and other approaches to detect pancreatic cancer during its earliest stage (cancer.net). Immunotherapy is also another part of the ongoing research in which aims to improve the natural defense of the body to fight cancer. It involves materials either naturally from human body or from a laboratory to target, improves or even restores the functions of the immune system. The cancer stem cells is the research that focuses on the identification of treatments, may target cancer stem cells (cancer.net).
References
American Cancer Society (n.d.). How is Pancreatic Cancer Treated. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/pancreaticcancer/detailedguide/pancreatic-cancer-treating-general-info
American Society of Clinical Oncology (2013, October). Who Discovered Pancreatic Cancer? Retrieved December 19, 2013, from http://discovery.yukozimo.com/who-discovered-pancreatic-cancer/
American Society of Clinical Oncology (n.d.). Pancreatic Cancer | Cancer.Net. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/pancreatic-cancer/latest-research
John Hopkins University (2012). What Causes Pancreatic Cancer? Retrieved December 19, 2013, from http://www.path.jhu.edu/pc/BasicCauses.php?area=ba
Pancreatic cancer symptoms : Cancer Research UK : CancerHelp UK. (n.d.). Retrieved December 19, 2013, from http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/type/pancreatic-cancer/about/pancreatic-cancer-symptoms
