Learn about Pancreatic Cancer

What is Pancreatic Cancer?

Pancreatic Cancer is cancer that begins in the pancreas which is an organ lying behind the lower part of the stomach.

What is an pancreas?

Pancreas is a large gland that is behind/under the stomach. It secretes digestive enzymes into the duodenum.

How can you get Pancreatic Cancer?

At the moment the cause of pancreatic cancer is unknown.

What can you do to lower your risk factor of getting Pancreatic Cancer?

don't smoke
stay at a healthy weight
limit your alcohol use
limit your exposure to certain and/or all chemicals in your workplace or anywhere in general

Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer

Treatments

Test/exam

Before potentially curative and palliative surgery the doctors/surgeons will do a test/exam that is called staging laparoscopy. When they do this test they will usually do small cuts/incisions in the abdomen and once those cuts are made they will insert long thin instruments. One of the long thin instruments contains a camera for the surgeon to look at the abdomen and inside of it. This will allow the surgeon to take a look at the pancreas and any other organs for tumors and to take biopsy samples of the abdomen to see how far the cancer has spread to determine which surgery option is best for you.

Two general surgeries

Potentially Curative surgery- potentially curative surgery is when the doctors/surgeons do tests and exams to see what is the best solution/decision to make and most of the time these exams and tests suggest that the doctors/surgeons get rid of all the cancer.
Palliative surgery- palliative surgery is when the exams and test show that the cancer is widespread so it's impossible to get rid of it completely so the surgeons will get rid of the cancer partially to help release pain
- Palliative surgery can take up to weeks or months for a full recovery

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