Facts On Pancreatic Cancer

The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system. It produces several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin as well as secretes pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes. It is a very important organ dealing with digestion and hormone production but unfortunately also vulnerable to many infections including pancreatic cancer. Every year about 33,000 individuals in the United States and more than 60,000 in Europe are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Symptoms And Causes Of Pancreatic Cancer

Early diagnosis for pancreatic cancer is very difficult because most of its symptoms are non-specific. The most common noticeable symptoms for this type of cancer are pain in the upper abdomen, loss of appetite, significant weight loss and painless jaundice related to bile duct obstruction. All of these symptoms can potentially have multiple causes, which is the reason why pancreatic cancer is often not diagnosed until it is in its advanced stages.

There are many different causal risk factors associated with the development of pancreatic cancer. These risk factors include age, male gender, African ethnicity, smoking, obesity, a high meat diet, and diabetes. Pancreatic cancer is usually discovered during the course of the evaluation of all of these symptoms. Liver function tests are often performed to verify if there is any obstruction in the bile duct. Ultrasound and CT scans are also used to scan the inside of our bodies and to identify tumor growths.

The Prognosis Of Pancreatic Cancer