By Dave Warner
Your pancreas is a relatively small part of your body, only about six inches long, but as pancreatic cancer patients know, it is capable of causing big problems.
Consider this grim statistic from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: some 44,030 people are expected to be diagnosed with the disease this year, and 37,660 will die from it.
Indeed, 74 percent of people hit with the disease die within the first year, the network says, and the 5-year survival rate is only 6 percent. The network is trying to push research funding to double that rate by 2020.
But some beat those odds. Jeff Ross, 62, of Laguna Beach, California, who is an 8-year survivor is one of them.
As is typical, Ross at first had no real symptoms, which is the reason the action network says pancreatic cancer is sometimes called a “silent” disease.
Ross puts it another way: “It is absolutely an asymptomatic disease until you get to the later stages.”
He had always thought of himself as a pretty fit guy when he was 54, just before he was diagnosed.
“I was in perfect health, I had no major diseases, I worked out regularly at the gym,” he said.
But symptoms began creeping into his consciousness, kind of on little feet. He noticed he was getting heartburn from time to time, for instance, but did not pay it much attention.
But things came suddenly and without warning to his attention when he was working in his yard, replacing some boards on the side of his house. He was wearing a tool belt, when he leaned forward.
“It caught me,” he remembered, “and the pain knocked me silly.”
It was time for his annual physical anyway, so he went to the doctor, and there he learned that his blood work was showing some problems.
“My cholesterol was through the roof,” he said.
Jaundice set it shortly after that, his wife noticed it in his eyes, and told him to look in the mirror.
Then came pancreatitis, which is an inflammation of the pancreas.
“Pancreatitis is one of the most painful things that can happen to you,” he said.
All of that led to his first surgery, in July of 2003, which is when his “survival” date was set.
Doctors told his wife his prognosis was that he would probably live for six to nine months. He soon began both radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Seven months after the surgery and treatments, his weight had dropped to 140, from 185.
Since then, he has had surgery to repair some tissue damage, has been diagnosed with Type II diabetes, has had a benign tumor surgically removed from his pancreas, and in January of this year underwent another surgery to remove a second malignant tumor.
With all that, Ross said on a recent day as he answered his telephone, “I just got in from the gym.”
Nobody really knows why some people get pancreatic cancer, and some people do not.
But there some things that can put you at risk:
- Don’t smoke. Some believe that of the several risk factors, smoking is number one.
- A family history of relatives with pancreatic cancer.
- Pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas.
- Being overweight.
- Diabetes.
Your pancreas may be relatively small, but it plays a big role in your body chemistry. It produces enzyme laden juices that help you break down food, and also produces insulin and other hormones. The insulin helps you to control your blood sugar, and the hormones help you store energy.
In common parlance, most people refer to just pancreatic cancer as being one type of disease. In fact, though, there are two types.
Some 95 percent of pancreatic cancers fall under the type that stem from exocrine tumors, so called because the cells that produce enzymes are exocrine cells.
The remaining 5 percent of cancers are from endocrine cells, which produce insulin and other hormones.
A key in the diagnoses of the disease comes when your doctor determines what stage your cancer has reached.
It can range from the lowest stage on a six-step scale, 1A, to the highest, stage four, with several steps in between.
The 1A staging means your tumor has not spread beyond your pancreas, and is 2 centimeters or smaller in size. By the time the cancer gets to stage four, the tumor can be much bigger, and the cancer has spread to other parts of your body.
Determining whether the cancer has spread is one of the keys to what kind of treatment your doctor may prescribe.
The other key factors are the location of the tumor, and your age and your general state of health.
There are several factors in determining what kind of treatment you may get too.
Here’s a list of possibilities:
- Surgery to remove the tumor. That tends to be the option for people with early stage cancer.
- Chemotherapy, which can be given either before or after surgery.
- Targeted therapy, which tends to be the treatment for people who are not surgical candidates. It’s a drug that helps slow the cancer, and can stop it from spreading.
- Radiation, used to kill cancer cells. It is sometimes prescribed with other treatments, including chemotherapy.
Ross has been though many treatments and surgeries, but he also mentions one that is not prominently mentioned in the medical literature.
“I have a huge support group,” he said.
Plus, he also has a hopeful outlook on a disease that offers much grim news.
He said after his diagnosis, he went on-line to learn what he could about it. He read that only about 10 percent of the victims live more than a year.
So, he reasoned, “Why not me?”
Tell Us What You Think Of This Story. Share your comments below.
SOURCE: