Is Pancreatic Cancer Curable?

Bob looks at Dr. Peter Roland with trepidation. What is he going to say? Will he give him false hopes? Thoughts like this are rummaging through his mind and he is looking at the doctor for a hint as to what the result of his medical tests would be. Bob has never felt so troubled in his life time. He is wondering about his wife Julia and kids waiting at home for him. A lump forms in his throat and tears blur his vision. Bob is not alone in this situation. There are thousands of Bobs in this world waiting with fear and anxiety about their health condition, while pancreatic cancer affects them without their knowledge.  This deadly disease is a silent killer. Pancreatic cancer is never known till it reaches a late stage. Since the organ is very tiny and is placed in a tricky place it’s difficult to detect pancreatic tumors till a late stage. This is one form of cancer which does not provide definite symptoms whereby the cancer can be detected at a formative stage, and coupled with that is the fact that options for treatment for this cancer is limited.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most fatal form of cancer behind breast, colon and prostrate. There are four stages in pancreatic cancer. If it is detected at the first stage when it is still developing in the pancreas then chemotherapy can possibly prevent the cancer from spreading and clean it out of the system. Generally pancreatic cancer is never detected in stage one. Stage two also tries to arrest the spreading of the cancer to other related organs by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. If these two fail then surgery to remove the pancreas called pancreatectomy can be performed. This depends on the age and health condition of the patient.

In stage three the cancer could have spread like fire and other body parts and tissues may also have got affected. Surgery and chemotherapy to the other parts including pancreas is performed. By the fourth stage it’s futile to try any treatment as the cancer has affected the nearby organs like stomach, spleen, large bowels or the nearby blood vessels

Once the cancer sets in the pancreas, the bile duct which caries bile from the liver to the arteries gets clogged and there is reverse flow of bile as a result of which jaundice and fever set in the body.  Subsequentl,y it starts affecting other organs as well, and ultimately leads to death.