Pancreatic Cancer
February 10th, 2008 by Aaks
Pancreas is situated just below the abdominal cavity and adjacent to the small intestine. The main function of the pancreas is to secrete endocrine juice that helps in the metabolism process. It mainly secretes a hormone known as insulin. Insulin is responsible for converting sugary substances into glucose to release energy in the body. Hence pancreas is an important organ in the body that performs the digestive function. Pancreas is made up of glandular cells and if the cells in the pancreas multiply then it leads to pancreatic cancer. If an indivual develops pancreatic cancer, then he acutely faces problems like indigestion and pain. Hence no energy is released into the body. When a person is said to have developed pancreatic cancer, he develops it either in the endocrine or glandular part of the pancreas.
Pancreatic cancer is fatal in nature. There are many kinds of pancreatic nature and almost all the types of cancers are vulnerable. Although they show different characteristics and affect different areas the rate of survival for all the types of cancers is very low. One common characteristic of the disease is that the digestive tract does not function normally and it leads to metastasis.
The doctors can cure the disease only if the development is in a milder form. But till today, only in rare cases a doctor was able to diagnose the development of cancer at an early stage and hence cure the patient completely. But usually doctor cannot diagnose the occurrence easily.
Pancreas is a vital organ because it performs two important functions. It secrets enzymes into the body that helps in the digestion of food particles. The part of the pancreas that secrets enzymes are known as exocrine pancreas. The glandular cells that release digestive enzymes in the body digest the food particles and carry the waste matter into the small intestine. If cancer occurs to the person then the digestive enzymes do not function smoothly and hence the digestion process is affected.
Another function which the pancreas performs is to secrete a hormone called insulin. This action is performed by the endocrine pancreas. The insulin regulates the sugar levels in the blood. The sugar present into the body is converted into energy. When the endocrine gland is affect it leads to abnormalities and adequate energy is not released into the body.
Pancreas is divided into two parts depending upon the function performed by them. One pancreas is the exocrine pancreas and the other type of pancreas is the endocrine pancreas. As the name indicates the exocrine pancreas is the outer layer of the pancreas and the endocrine pancreas is the inner layer of the pancreas.
Pancreatic cancer usually leads to death. Only if the disease is diagnosed at the early stage, then the person suffering may survive. If a person has developed this disease, he may survive unto five years. The rate of survival is also only 4 % i.e. 1 person out of 30 persons may survive. Even in the most developed country like U.S, nearly 30000 deaths in a year are simply caused due to pancreatic cancer.
This disease is leading to many deaths because it is diagnosed at a very later stage. When a person is diagnosed, the cancerous part is already spread to the other organs of our body. At this stage even the most medical experts cannot find a suitable treatment. A person who attends a clinic frequently and conducts regular medical- check up may be diagnosed at an early stage and hence find curative treatment.
Till today, no medical professionals have been able to detect the symptoms that are developed due to the onset of the disease. Each patient develops different type of symptoms. Pancreatic cancer is caused due to several reasons and hence the symptoms also depend upon the root cause.
Grading of cells is done by the doctors in order to determine the extent of infected areas. If you are graded as 0 then the count of cells is normal. At this stage the disease can be cured easily.
According to recent survey conducted, the females develop this disease easily compared to men. The rate of incidence is very high among people who are between the ages of 60 to 85. People below the age of 25 years rarely develop. I.e. the rate of cause is hardly 1%.
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