Life span for the patient diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is usually short and ranges from 6 months to 5 years. This is because, generally, this type of tumor is only discovered at an advanced stage of the disease, in which the tumor is already very large or has already spread to other organs and tissues.
If there is early detection of pancreatic cancer, a very rare event, the patient's survival is greater and, in rare cases, the disease can be cured.
How to identify the cancer early
Pancreatic cancer is usually identified early by performing an ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging in the abdomen for some other reason, and the organ involvement is clear, or when abdominal surgery is performed near this organ and the doctor is able to visualize some changes .
How is the treatment done?
According to the staging degree of pancreatic cancer doctors may indicate performing surgery, radio and / or chemotherapy. Very serious cases are not addressed in this way and the patient receives only the palliative treatment, which only helps to reduce the unpleasant symptoms, improving the quality of life.
During this period it is still recommended to have a healthy life and enjoy the life time with family and friends. At this stage the person can also decide some legal procedures, and it is not possible to donate blood or organs because this type of cancer has a high risk of developing metastases and, therefore, this type of donation would not be safe for who would receive the tissues .
Does pancreatic cancer have a cure?
In most cases, pancreatic cancer has no cure because it is identified at a very advanced stage when several parts of the body are already affected, which reduces the effect of treatment.
Thus, to improve the chances of cure, it is necessary to identify the cancer at an early stage, when it is still only affecting a small part of the pancreas. In these cases, surgery is usually done to remove the affected part of the organs and then treatment with chemotherapy or radiation is done to eliminate the tumor cells that have remained in place.
Here are the symptoms of pancreatic cancer and how to treat it.
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