Cancer - Pancreatic

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumour within the pancreatic gland. Each year about 32,000 individuals in the United States are diagnosed with this condition, and more than 60,000 in Europe. Depending on the extent of the tumour at the time of diagnosis, the prognosis is generally regarded as poor, with few victims still alive 5 years after diagnosis, and complete remission still extremely rare.

About 95 percent of pancreatic tumors are adenocarcinomas. The remaining 5 percent include other tumors of the exocrine pancreas, acinar cell cancers, and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. These tumors have a completely different diagnostic and therapeutic profile, and generally a more favorable prognosis.

Patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer typically have a poor prognosis partly because the cancer usually causes no symptoms early on, leading to metastatic disease at time of diagnosis. Median survival from diagnosis is around 3 to 6 months; 5-year survival is much less than 5%. With 32,180 new diagnoses in the United States every year, and 31,800 deaths, mortality approaches 99%, giving pancreatic cancer the #1 fatality rate of all cancers and the #4 cancer killer in the United States amongst both men and women.

Pancreatic cancer occasionally may result in diabetes. Insulin production is hampered and it has been suggested that the cancer can also prompt the onset of diabetes and vice versa.

...More at Wikipedia  

Related Links:

• National Cancer Institute
• US National Library of Medicine
• Mayo Clinic

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