Cancer of the pancreas

Introduction

About these disease is said to be "silent disease " because it's early stage does not cause symptoms. Pancreatic cancer among all cancers is represented by 2 %. The risk of developing the disease rises with age, and rarely occurs in people younger than 30 years. Cancer of the pancreas is characterised by rapid and aggressive growth, with expansion to the closest organs, lymph nodes and creating distant metastases.

At the time of diagnosis of the disease in most cases it is at the advanced stage and long-term survival is statistically less than 20 %.

What is the pancreas?

The pancreas is a gland located in the abdominal cavity that belongs to the digestive system and the endocrine system of glands. It creates enzymes for digestion (amylase, lipase, trypsin, chymotrypsin) and hormones (insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, pancreatic polypeptide). Some of hormones act at the digestive system and other operating system in the entire organism.

Symptoms

Symptoms that appear in the early stage of the disease are nonspecific and are attributed to a wide range of diseases and conditions. Examples are feeling of bloating stomach after eating, feeling of discomfort in the abdomen, nausea, anorexia, weight loss and more.

Symptoms that are specific for the disease usually appear when the tumour grows. These include abdominal pain, jaundice and vomiting. The primary symptom is pain in the abdomen, usually in the upper part with propagation to the back. In the course of the disease comes to weight loss and decrease in appetite. In 50-80 % of cases (depending on location) occurs jaundice of the skin and the whites of the eyes.

Alarming symptom that must indicate the patient to call the doctor 's appearance of jaundice that is not followed by the pain.

Cancer cells suppress normal cells of the pancreas and therefore its function, and therefore can develop diabetes or glucose intolerance. In certain cases can occur acute pancreatitis or deep vein thrombosis?

Risk Factors

Smoking is associated with 25-35 % of cases of chronic pancreatitis.

Chronic pancreatitis is associated with a significantly increased risk of cancer occurrence

Positive on family history

Irregular diet with high fat and protein

The risk increases with the age of the patients

Exposure to toxic pesticides, benzidine etc.

Diagnosis

Some tumour markers are elevated in other cancers. However, pancreatic cancer has no specific tumour marker.

With the progress of the disease is expected to increase the level of bilirubin and malnutrition.

Echography of the abdomen and CT are important investigations that may lead to the correct diagnosis of the disease.

ERCP allows visualisation of the opening of the pancreatic duct into the duodenum, through recording it with contrast to show the channel system of the pancreas channel system of the liver and biliary tract, and allows sampling to test the contents of pancreatic excreta.

Treatment

Treatment depends of the stage at which the cancer is at the time of its discovery (metastases, infiltration of surrounding tissue and other).

Therapeutic approaches are: surgical removal of the pancreas and adjacent organs if they are affected / or chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

For pain relief are used analgesics and nerve blocks.