Adenocarcinoma is one of the most frequent forms of malignant damage to pancreatic tissue. Recovery and the absence of relapses for several years is possible only if adenocarcinoma is diagnosed at the initial stage of its development.
Causes of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas
Any malignant formation in the body is a consequence of the mutation of healthy cells, which begin to intensively divide and form a tumor.
But the exact factors contributing to the disruption of cell function in pancreatic cancer have not been established.
The majority of patients showed a long-term effect on the body:
- Tobacco resins.
- Too greasy, spicy food.
- Chemicals. Cancer of the gland is more often detected in those who are engaged in industries engaged in the treatment of asbestos, gasoline.
It is also believed that the cancer process can be triggered due to impaired metabolism. Therefore, a sedentary lifestyle, severe obesity, and lack of constant physical activity also provoke malignant tumors in the digestive organs.
Adenocarcinoma refers to those pathologies that are registered with close relatives. That is, an unfavorable heredity should make you take better care of your health.
Adenocarcinoma is formed either from cells of the mucous layer of the walls of the organ, or from the epithelium that lines the excretory ducts of the organ. In appearance, this malignant formation is a node of irregular shape, whitish in color, and resilient in palpation.
It is located both inside the body itself and outside. In some patients, the formation parameters reach 10 cm in diameter. Tumor cells adenocarcinoma divide very quickly, and thus the epithelial tissue is replaced by fibrous tissue.
The tumor developing within the pancreas quickly extends beyond its limits, passes to nearby organs and tissues and metastasizes.
Varieties of
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is divided into several forms, these are:
- Clear cell adenocarcinoma with a high degree of differentiation. This tumor forms tubular structures with different size and shape. The structure of similar tubular structures or in a different way the cancer glands resembles the ducts of the organ. Histological examination reveals a cubic, cylindrical and flattened epithelium in the epithelial lining. The cytoplasm of the cells is homogeneous and light, in the lumen of the cancerous tubular glands mucus is found in large numbers.
- Clear cell adenocarcinoma with a high degree of differentiation and with mucus. Cancer glands externally resemble cysts and contain a light pink secret. The study reveals a large amount of mucus and acidic glycosaminoglycans. The epithelial lining is represented by a cylindrical epithelium, in places the flattened cells are found. Individual cysts can merge with each other as a result of the rupture, and large cystic nodes with mucus are formed.
- Low-grade adenocarcinoma. This is a tumor with a pronounced fibrous stroma and solid alveolar clusters of cells of different shapes and sizes. The formation of glandular and ferruginous structures is revealed. Slime in the glands is produced and accumulated unevenly.
- Scirrhous adenocarcinoma. In addition to the cancer glands in the tumor tissue are separate cancer cells that form chains. The nuclei of irregularly shaped cells and large ones occupy the most part, often several cells are in one cell. Cancer cells of this form of adenocarcinoma do not have the ability to mucus.
- Clear cell adenocarcinoma with a low degree of differentiation. Characterized by the formation of large cancers with irregular shape and with the expansion of lumens in the form of cysts. Cells fat and mucus do not produce.
Symptoms of pathology
Pancreatic adenocarcinomas are manifested by specific and nonspecific signs.
At the earliest stage of the disease, a person does not notice any changes in his state of health, and this is the reason for the later application for medical help.
About a few months before the onset of the main symptomatology, intolerance of individual flavors and odors may arise, one percent of patients develop pancreatitis with acute manifestations.
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma increases the gallbladder and liver, which helps to accurately propalp the tumor.
To a group of specific symptoms are:
- Mechanical jaundice of the skin and mucous membranes, itching and nausea. These signs of the disease are caused by the compression or plugging of the bile ducts by a growing tumor, which leads to an increase in the amount of bile in the body.
- The development of secondary pancreatitis, which is manifested by inflammatory reactions and a malfunctioning organ.
- Diabetes mellitus, which occurs when cancer is affected by cells that produce insulin.
- Ascites are accumulations of fluid in the abdominal cavity in the last stages of cancer.
The non-specific signs of the disease include those that appear not only in most malignant neoplasms, but also in different inflammatory and infectious pathologies of the digestive system, these are:
- Pain localized in the upper abdomen and under the ribs on the right. In cancer of the PZ often pain is given in the lower back, shoulder blade or has a shingling character.
- Digestive dysfunction, manifested by nausea, heartburn, diarrhea or constipation, flatulence.
- Lack of appetite and as a result of this decrease in the usual weight.
- Lethargy, apathy, sleep disturbance.
- Anemia.
If metastases pass to the intestine, then the appearance of such complications as intestinal obstruction is not ruled out. With liver damage, it is possible to develop a hepatic coma. If cancer cells enter the lungs, then the main symptoms will be coughing, when the tumor breaks up, sputum streaks appear in the sputum.
Separately, one should consider such a sign of adenocarcinoma of the prostate, as the appearance of fat in the stool. Cancer changes the functioning of the gland, which reduces the amount of produced enzymes necessary for the cleavage of the fatty part of the food. Therefore, fat appears in the stool.
When emptying the intestine, a strange smell is noted, and the feces can stay on the surface for a long time, it is very difficult to wash off. Blocking the ducts with bile leads to the fact that the bowel movements brighten and acquire a clay structure. Some of the patients get dark urine.
Stages of development of
There are four stages of adenocarcinoma of the prostate.
- In the first stage, the tumor size is no more than 2 cm, it does not go beyond the organs, lymph nodes are not affected, and there are no metastases.
- In the second stage, the tumor is more than 2 cm, the remaining characteristics correspond to the first stage.
- In the third stage, the tumor passes to adjacent organs and gives metastases, but does not seize the mesenteric artery and celiac trunk.
- At the fourth stage, the mesenteric artery and the celiac trunk are involved in the cancer process, metastases are detected in remote organs.
Diagnosis of the disease
If a patient shows signs indicating a possible defeat of pancreatic cancer, then he is usually assigned a standard diagnostic scheme, which includes:
- ultrasound. Scanning the gland allows you to determine in it the morphological changes, the presence of the tumor, its location and dimensions. Also, when performing ultrasound, other abdominal organs are examined, this is necessary to detect a secondary focus in them.
- CT.This method of research is carried out with the help of modern computer installations, allowing the body to investigate layer by layer. This method reveals not only the localization of education, but also the extent of its spread and penetration into the walls of the organ. Computer tomography shows and metastases in a number of organs with the gland.
- Biopsy - biopsy sampling, that is, a sample of tissue from the neoplasm, for histological examination. Without this method, it is impossible to confirm or deny the cancer of any organ.
- Blood test is required to detect changes in enzyme levels, bilirubin, total protein, urea, and other indicators indicating a pathological process. Blood is also taken to determine oncomarkers.
- Angiography is the study of vessels using contrast medium and radiography. This examination allows us to reveal the peculiarities of the blood supply of a growing tumor.
- Laparoscopy is an endoscopic abdominal examination that helps physicians visually assess all changes in organs and tissues.
Treatment of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas
The only effective method of treatment of adenocarcinoma of the prostate is a surgical operation, during which not only part of this organ is removed, but also separate segments of the stomach, spleen, intestine.
In the future, if necessary, reconstructive plastic is used, which restores ducts artificially and ensures intestinal continuity.
But the operation is assigned only to a few percent of patients, as it is not possible to carry out the operation at later stages.
Other treatments for adenocarcinoma of the gland are chemotherapy and radiation exposure.
Radiation exposure to patients with the prostate is assigned before the operation, after it is performed, and the use of special techniques allows to irradiate the organ immediately during surgical intervention. Radiation therapy is almost never prescribed without chemotherapy.
In the last stages of cancer, palliative treatment is selected, the main goal of which is to alleviate the symptoms and prolong the life of the patient.
Forecast of survival of
patients If a patient has adenocarcinoma of the prostate, then doctors can not give a favorable prognosis. Most often from the moment of development of the first obvious signs of cancer of this organ and to death passes no more than two years.
According to the statistical data, only 2 people with prostate cancer from one hundred live without relapse until 5 years. But if a radical operation is successfully performed at the earliest stage of the disease, 27% of patients get a chance to stay alive.