Pancreatic Cancer: An Overview

Pancreatic cancer is a malign tumor that develops within the pancreas, a gland in the digestive track that assists digestion, and secretes insulin as well as other hormones. In 2001, pancreatic cancer killed 29,082 people in the United States or about 3 people every hour. In 2004, the total was over 31,000. Government statistics report 12.9 men in 100,000 will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and of those 12.2 will die from the disease (2001 numbers).

Like most cancers, the key to successful treatment is early diagnosis. With pancreatic cancer this is made more difficult due to the vague, non-specific symptom experienced by patients even in late stages. Stomach pain, often on the right side and radiating around to the back, weight loss, and jaundice are all common, but these are common symptoms of many different diseases resulting in the frequency of late diagnosis. When it is discovered, it has often progressed to a metastatic disease, with a median survival rate of 3 to 6 months.

Risk factors for pancreatic cancers include age and gender (men over the age of 55 account for 69.2 percent of all new cases), obesity, diabetes, family history and smoking. Smokers are 75% more likely to develop cancer, a risk that does not less for 10 years or more after quitting.

Treatment for pancreatic cancer involves chemotherapy, with a certain group of drugs proving slightly more effective in early cases. There is also a new surgical treatment called the Whipple procedure, where the head of the pancreas is removed. There is some discussion whether the removal of the entire pancreas would be more beneficial, but there has not been a study that shows improved outcomes. The chemotherapy drug Gemcitabine was approved by the FDA in 1998 for its ability to improve the quality of life in pancreatic suffers, the first time the FDA approved a chemotherapy drug with a non-survival clinical trail endpoint. There has also been some studies using vaccines to treat cancer (not prevent cancer, the use of vaccines in other diseases), though none have been approved by the FDA at this time.

Because pancreatic cancer is usually detected so late, the prognosis is very poor. Due to the location of the pancreas and the number of blood vessels any surgical procedure is dangerous, and the Whipple procedure is only effective for cancer in the head of the pancreas. Since the pancreas produces the body's insulin, the patient is also at risk for developing diabetes, further complicating the out come. Even with aggressive treatment, the 5 year survival rate is less than 5% the lowest of all major cancers.

In 2006,of the National Cancer Institute's 4.8 billion dollar cancer research budget one percent was spent on pancreatic cancer.