The first ever mention of cancer is found in Egyptian papyri, dating back to 1600 BC.Diagnose the same diseases of the pancreas learned much later, in the middle of the XVII century. For a long time, the diseases of this organ were considered fatal. However, modern medicine can not guarantee a complete cure for such a disease as cancer.
Pancreatic Cancer Clinic
Pancreatic cancer is characterized by an asymptomatic course. As a rule, in the period before the earliest period in the history of the disease symptoms are noted that are typical for a number of diseases: weakness, apathy, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, a sharp decrease in weight, stinking, liquid stool with pieces of unboiled food. In the case of damage to the body and tail, pain syndrome occurs in 80% of cases. If the head is affected, the pain syndrome does not occur immediately. The first clinical sign of pancreatic cancer is jaundice. The urine becomes much darker, and the feces become light. Later, acute shingles appear, fever and fever to 40 ° C, itching. Specificity of the head cancer clinic is a positive symptom of Courvosier. In 20% of patients, the tumor is palpable on examination.
Medicine and pancreatic cancer
For the treatment of pancreatic cancer in modern medicine, several methods are used: radical surgical treatment( removal of the head of the organ and duodenum), pancreatectomy( removal of the organ, duodenum, affected lymph nodes, veins and arteries), enlarged gastro-pancreatoduodentalresection( Whipple operation).
According to the statistics of the case history, in 50% of patients after the surgical treatment there is a relapse. In 20% of cases, tumor regression can be achieved by chemotherapy. In case of inoperability, the patient undergoes chemoradiotherapy.
Development of pancreatic cancer, how and how much develops?
The pancreas performs two main functions. The external secretory( exogenous) function consists in the development of enzymes involved in the digestion of food. Intrasecretory function( endocrine) is the production of hormones: insulin and glucagon. If, for some reason, there is a violation of the process of normal cell division, there is cancer. In 95% of the case histories, tumor cells develop in the exocrine part of the pancreas and in 5% in its endocrine part.
The disease has seven stages:
- Stage O. The tumor is localized in the ducts of the gland.
- Stage IA.Neoplasm does not go beyond the body and has a size of not more than 20 mm.
- Stage IB.Education has dimensions of more than 20 mm, but is within the body.
- Stage IIA.The tumor extends beyond the gland.
- Stage IIB.The tumor extends to other organs and lymph nodes. Arteries and veins remain unaffected.
- Stage III.Affected by arteries and veins. There are no metastases.
- Stage IV.Various organs are affected by metastases.
Pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer
To date, the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer has not been identified. It has been established that smoking is one of the risk factors. It is with the dependence on nicotine that one third of all such diseases are associated. According to statistics, the risk of disease in smokers is two times higher than that of non-smokers. In 20-25% of patients in the history of the disease there is also diabetes mellitus. A single opinion, about whether diabetes is the cause of cancer or its consequence, is absent. Also, the nutritional factor is associated with this disease( 15-20% of cases).The development of the disease contributes to the use of high-calorie food and alcohol abuse. Heredity is the cause of the disease in every tenth case. We can not exclude professional factors( no more than 5% of cases): formaldehydes, pesticides, gasoline products negatively affect tumor cells. Genetic mutations, chronic pancreatic diseases, cholelithiasis can take part in pathogenesis.
Epidemiology of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is a common, intractable oncological disease with unfavorable prognosis. The disease is among the ten most common tumor diseases in the world. On death rate, the disease ranks 8th among oncological diseases. Over the past half-century, the incidence has grown 4-fold.
According to epidemiological statistics, pancreatic cancer is more often diagnosed in advanced countries. The ratio of ill men and women is 1.5: 1, respectively. The majority of cases are over 60 years old( about 80%).Cases of disease detection in patients younger than 30 years are extremely rare.
Resultivity( operability) of pancreatic cancer is no more than 25-30%.The 5-year survival rate does not exceed 1%.The average life expectancy after the detection of the disease is from 3 to 6 months. About 85% of patients die in the first year.