Hearing the news that you have cancer can never be light on anyone, and depending on the time of diagnosis, one can tell the grasp that cancer will have on their lives. This means that when diagnosed early enough, cancer can be dealt with easier and the chances of survival are much higher.
Enter pancreatic cancer, silent cancer wherein the patient, or the doctor, may not be aware of its existence within the body. It hides efficiently and can be considered a silent killer, and the difficulty of addressing its symptoms is just proof of that.
If you are somewhat involved with pancreatic in one way or another, or maybe you just want to learn more about this deadly disease, we should start with what the pancreas is.
What is the pancreas?
The pancreas is a gland hidden deep within the stomach, given that it is surrounded by more prominent organs such as the liver, intestine, and spleen. It is about 15 centimeters in length and is shaped like a pear, and it is divided into the head, the neck and body, and the tail. The pancreas is responsible for releasing hormones that help the body break down sugar and help digestion.
How pancreatic cancer forms
As with any cancer, pancreatic cancer starts when mutations begin to develop within DNA. Seeing as how a cell’s DNA dictates how it behaves, abnormalities will lead to that cell going haywire and growing exponentially, living even after normals have died. The accumulation of these cells will form a tumor and will spread to nearby organs and areas of the body if it is left untreated.
With pancreatic cancer, research has shown that it will most often start within the ducts of the gland. When this occurs, it is referred to as pancreatic adenocarcinoma. When the cancerous cells grow initially within the hormone-producing area of the pancreas, it will be referred to as pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
Of course, the chances of acquiring pancreatic cancer depend on your lifestyle. Here is a list of things that can that risk.
Risk factors
- Frequently smoking
- Being diagnosed with diabetes.
- pancreatitis
- Family history and ancestry, especially those with genetic syndromes BRCA2, Lynch syndrome, and familial atypical mole-malignant melanoma. Previous family members who may have had pancreatic cancer may also increase your risk.
- Obesity.
- The older you are, the higher the chance of having pancreatic cancer.
Silent Symptoms Of Pancreatic Cancer
Jaundice
Pancreatic cancer will mostly block the ducts located in that area, one of which is the liver. This will lead to liver bile being blocked and causing jaundice. It will manifest in ways such as yellowish eyes and skin. Jaundice will also be characterized by darker urine and lighter stool.
Loss of appetite/indigestion/weight loss
Weight loss is an eventuality for most cancer patients, as cancer will act like a leech on the body and pull all of its nutrients. Furthermore, as the problem rests within the stomach, patients will experience a lot of vomiting and indigestion which eventually leads to a big loss of appetite. Moreover, since the pancreas has a problem filtering the nutrients from food, it leads to more physiological problems.
Fatigue
Another thing that may be ambiguous when it first starts to happen, is that fatigue is very common amongst pancreatic cancer patients. It becomes much worse during treatment and can be unavoidable even after months of prior treatments. What is difficult with fatigue in pancreatic cancer patients is that it is pervasive; it happens during digestion, during everyday chores, and even lying down. Noticing it before and being mindful enough to get yourself checked might just make the biggest difference.
Abdominal and back pain
Considering that the pancreas rests deep within the stomach, abdominal pain will be constant and troublesome as the tumor will press on all the organs around the gland.
This pain can start to progress to parts of the back, and worsens when the patient is lying down or even simply leaning forward.
Diabetes
We mentioned earlier that having diabetes can increase your chance of having pancreatic cancer, but a big portion of pancreatic cancer is discovered in its early stages because it may have been detected after a routine check on another health problem.
However, when one is already diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, diabetes may follow due to the weight gain that the patient experiences. As the pancreas is responsible for regulating insulin, complications will cause sugar levels to be volatile and increase to concerning levels.
Regardless of its specificity, cancer remains one of the fatal diseases around the globe. However, with scientific breakthroughs and observations, especially in pancreatic cancer clinical trials, we should already be aware of how we can minimize the chances of us being diagnosed with such a daunting disease. It may just be bad luck, or it might be fate, but the best thing that we can do is take care of ourselves and mind our symptoms. It might be the key to saving our lives.