Pancreatic cancer with low relative survival rate, main symptoms?
Nov 28, 2024
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Pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year relative survival rate (15.9%) among the top 10 cancers in Korea. Compared to the average of all cancer patients, the figure is less than half. In general, pancreatic cancer often progresses considerably when a patient visits a hospital because he or she feels symptoms. This is because there are few initial symptoms, and the pancreas is surrounded by organs and is located deep on the back, making it difficult to detect compared to other carcinomas.
In particular, the importance of the pancreas cannot be overlooked because it plays a key role in the metabolic process as the digestive system of our body. The main role is to secrete digestive fluids to break down fat, carbohydrates, and proteins, and to secrete hormones to control blood sugar. In other words, it is not an exaggeration to say that the health of the pancreas affects the overall physical health.
The main symptoms of pancreatic cancer include ▲ pain starting in the upper abdomen and moving to the back ▲ jaundice due to bile duct obstruction ▲ weight loss of unknown cause ▲ indigestion and loss of appetite ▲ sudden diabetes ▲ skin itching. In particular, abdominal and back pain occurs in most pancreatic cancer patients, but many people think it insignificant and pass without receiving treatment.
Regular health checkups are important because these symptoms appear after pancreatic cancer has progressed to some extent. Therefore, periodic observation is necessary if you have a risk factor for pancreatic cancer.
Professor Park Soo-hyung of Surgery at Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary's Hospital said, `The cause of pancreatic cancer has not been clearly identified. However, according to several studies, smoking, old diabetes, poor eating habits, chronic pancreatitis, and some genetic diseases are known as risk factors for increasing the incidence of pancreatic cancer.'
To diagnose pancreatic cancer, hospitals often use computed tomography (CT), and if cancer is suspected, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and endoscopic ultrasound are performed to check the size or metastasis of the cancer.
Pancreatic cancer, like other cancers, is a fundamental treatment. Pancreatic cancer is largely divided into head, body, and tail depending on the location of the tumor, and surgery depends on the location or stage of the tumor. First, if there is cancer in the head of the pancreas, pancreatic duodenal resection (Whipple surgery) is performed. The operation removes the head, duodenum, gallbladder, bile duct, and part of the stomach of the pancreas, and connects the remaining organs to maintain digestive function. In addition, when there is cancer in the body or tail of the pancreas, distal pancreatic resection is performed to remove the spleen, including this area.
Finally, if cancer is spread throughout the pancreas, total pancreatic resection is performed to remove the entire pancreas and all adjacent organs such as the duodenum, gallbladder, and spleen. Undergoing total pancreatic resection, pancreatic resection makes it difficult to produce pancreatic fluid and hormones, so it is necessary to administer digestive enzymes and insulin to replace it.
After surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy may be combined to prevent recurrence. If cancer invades other organs or major blood vessels extensively and surgery is impossible, treatment may be performed by combining chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Professor Park Soo-hyung said "In recent years, patients who have had difficulty in surgery are also reducing tumors with chemotherapy and performing surgery, increasing survival time. Nevertheless, pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect early, so it is a cancer with a poor prognosis. "To prevent pancreatic cancer, you need to quit smoking, maintain a balanced diet and proper weight, and it is especially important to check for abnormalities in your body through regular checkups."
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