Treatments for Pancreatic Cancer

The pancreas is an organ located in the region of the abdomen behind the lower portion of the stomach, which produces enzymes and hormones responsible for helping in digestion and sugar metabolism. Pancreatic cancer is a disease of this organ that usually will quickly spread, and since it is hard to detect in its early stages it is difficult to overcome. Treatments of pancreatic cancer depend on what stage the disease is discovered at and other treatment factors including how old the patient is and what approach is preferred. However, in advanced stages the prognosis for recovery from pancreatic cancer no matter what the treatment is almost always very poor.

Treatment Focus

• If possible, the focus of pancreatic cancer treatment will be to eradicate the entire cancer but this approach is not usually an option since the disease is rarely caught early enough to make this practical. The next choice, then, is to attempt to keep the cancer in the pancreas from growing in size and from spreading to other parts of the body. If this is not successful then pancreatic cancer treatments will aim to give relief to symptoms and keep the individual as comfortable as possible.

Surgeries

• Most instances of pancreatic cancer are not operable but if the disease is diagnosed quickly then surgery can remove tumors. Tumors in the head of the pancreas can be taken out by what is called the Whipple procedure. The head of the pancreas, portions of the small intestine, the entire gallbladder, and a piece of the bile duct are all surgically removed during this operation with the possibility that a portion of the stomach also will be removed. The Whipple procedure is a pancreatic cancer treatment that can lead to infections and also to bleeding, and until the pancreas can recover there can be temporary diabetes, as well. The convalescent time for such a surgery is long, lasting for many weeks. When the tail end of the pancreas is removed to take out cancerous tumors then the operation is known as a pancreatectomy. The spleen may also come out and the chance of bleeding and infection are very real.

Radiation Treatment

• Pancreatic cancer can be attacked with radiation therapy in which high-energy radiation beams are focused on cancerous cells to kill them. It is often done in conjunction with any surgeries to remove cancer in the pancreas and it can either be performed with an external radiation machine or implanted into the body near the cancerous region to effectively treat the problem. Radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer usually occurs five days a week over a span of six weeks with the treatments only a few minutes in duration each time. Diarrhea, fatigue, skin irritation and nausea are common side effects from radiation treatments.

Chemotherapy

• Another treatment designed to kill cancer cells in the pancreas is chemotherapy. This form of treatment uses powerful drugs and is often used along with radiation therapy in pancreatic cancer cases. One such chemo drug is Gemcitabine, which is an infusion drug that is taken intravenously over time. This particular chemotherapy agent works on cancer cells but comes with side effects such as nausea and fatigue. Fluorouracil and Capecitabine are other pancreatic cancer chemotherapy medications that have proved somewhat effective.

Other Possible Treatments

• Targeted drug therapy is a specialized treatment form that uses medications such as Tarceva and Erlotinib to disrupt the production of cancer cells. Tarceva, for example, can block the chemical substance in the body that tells cancer cells to reproduce. These drugs can be used with chemotherapy drugs to battle pancreatic cancer. Clinical trials are always ongoing with the hope of producing medicines that can fight cancer. Patients with a poor prognosis can sometimes be accepted into such trials where experimental drugs are used. Pancreatic cancer vaccines are being studied in one such trial to actually make the immune system of someone with cancer aid in stopping the advance of the disease.