Cures for Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer refers to cancers that originate in the pancreas, the organ that is located behind the stomach that is part of the digestive system. There are two main types of pancreatic cancers:exocrine and endocrine. Exocrine tumors are more common and treatment is based on how far the cancer has spread. Endocrine tumors are more rare, but are treated using similar therapies. Depending on how advanced the cancer is, the combination of therapies used is designed to cure the pancreatic cancer by removing cancer cells from the body.

Treating Local Pancreatic Cancer

• If pancreatic cancer is diagnosed early enough, there is a greater chance that the cancer can be removed via surgery, particularly if the tumor is localized to the pancreas. There are two options for surgery: a pancreaticoduodenectomy or a distal pancreatectomy. If the tumor is too large to remove, chemotherapy may be administered prior to surgery to attempt to shrink the tumor to a removable size. Chemotherapy may also be given after therapy to help destroy any remaining cancer cells.

Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

• Locally advanced pancreatic cancer is difficult to cure. In these cases, the tumor can't simply be removed by surgery because it is too large. However, since the cancer is only locally advanced, it hasn't spread beyond the pancreas or nearby organs. Locally advanced cancer has a poor prognosis rate, and according to the American Cancer Society, surgery has not been successful at helping patients to live longer. The most common treatment is the use of chemotherapy (specifically gemcitabine) and radiation. In some instances, this use of chemotherapy and radiation has been able to shrink the tumor small enough so the tumor becomes removable by surgery, thus offering the patient a chance at a cure for the cancer.

Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

• Metastatic pancreatic cancer is not curable. Radiation and chemotherapy will not be able to destroy all the cancer cells in the body. Again, chemotherapy is used here to help minimize and destroy cancer cells in the body, but its purpose is to extend longevity and not to cure the cancer itself. Gemcitabine is the chemotherapy agent most often used here, but when it stops working doctors disagree on what chemotherapy agents should be used next to help extend longevity.

Recurrent Pancreatic Cancer

• Recurrent pancreatic cancer refers to the return of pancreatic cancer that was successfully removed from the body after surgery. It is generally not curable and is very difficult to treat. It is often treated as metastatic cancer, using the same chemotherapy methods to attempt to extend longevity, although sometimes patients with recurrent cancer are not strong enough to undergo chemotherapy treatment.

Prognosis

• Unfortunately, because pancreatic cancer is very difficult to cure, the five year survival rates are relatively low. Around 37 percent of patients diagnosed with Stage I (local pancreatic cancer) survive five years after the diagnosis; 12 percent of patients with Stage II (locally advanced pancreatic cancer) survive five years; two percent of patients with Stage III (locally advanced cancer with cancer cells in other organs and/or lymph nodes) survive five years after diagnosis; and one percent of patients with Stage IV metastatic cancer survive five years after diagnosis.