Pancreatic Cancer

What is the survival rate for people afflicted with Pancreatic Cancer?

Pancreatic Cancer is medically known as Pancreatic Carcinoma. It is the form of cancer that afflicts the pancreas. When we talk about the survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients, we mean the number of people who are still alive after the diagnosis of such a painful cancer type. Generally while enumerating the facts and data about the survival rates of patients, it is calculated on the basis of data about the last five years among the general population. But the matter of fact is that no patients are going to have same condition, so it is difficult to predict the survival rate of a particular pancreatic cancer patient as this varies from patient to patient.

The Pancreas is a large organ that is placed behind the stomach in our human body. It creates an enzyme that helps the body to absorb food; it especially releases a certain kind of enzyme to suck up fats, and hormones like glucose and insulin are produced here. So if the person is suffering from pancreatic cancer, the survival rate is low; as the body keeps on losing its power to soak up all the fats inside the body and it gets worse when body starts trailing its sugar down.

Generally, the survival rate of the pancreatic Cancer depends upon following factors:

• Whether surgery was successful in removing the tumour?
• What is the stage of the cancer?
• What is the size of the tumour?
• Whether the cancer has broadened outside the pancreas such as tissues around the pancreas or lymph nodes?
• Is there any other part of the body which is also affected by the pancreatic cancer?
• What is the general health of the patient?
• Whether the cancer has occurred first time or it is being recurred?

It can be controlled only if it has been diagnosed before it starts getting wider around the tissues. Not only this, but the surgery has to be done as soon as possible in such cases to get the tumour out.

Survival Rates of the pancreatic cancer can be computed using various different techniques for different functions. The Pancreatic Survival rates mentioned in this article is based on relative data and facts. The relative survival rate estimates the survival of the cancer patients in comparison to general inhabitants to compute the after effects of Cancer. Taken as a whole, five year relative survival rate of pancreatic cancer between 1995 and 2001 was 4.6 percent.

The five year relative survival rates on the basis of sex and race were:

Survival Rate on the basis of Stages:

Related five-year relative survival rate on the basis of Stages:

According to American Cancer Society, for all the stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the one year relative survival rate is 20% whereas the five year relative survival rate is 4%. The Reason behind low survival rate is that in these cases, diagnosis is done in the stage where surgery is difficult as well as risky to perform in order to save patient’s life or we can say surgery becomes near to impossible.

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Aftercare Treatment for patients / victims of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreactectomy is the surgical removal of the pancreas. Pancreatectomy may be total, in which case the whole organ is removed, or partial, referring to the removal of part of the pancreas. A patient suffering from pancreatic cancer, if successfully treated, then this treatment is normally done by surgery only. Very few cases are there where medications can remove the cancer except when it’s treated in the very first stage. The aftercare treatment is as important as the surgery. If the aftercare precautions and treatment are not undertaken properly then there are fair chances that the cancer is going to be effective soon and the survival rate of the patient is decreased.
Pancreatectomy is major surgery. Therefore, extended hospitalization is usually required. Some studies report an average hospital stay of about two weeks. Some patients are also treated through radiation therapy or radiation therapy or a combination of both after surgery. Results have shown that this has definitely increased the survival of the patients of pancreatic cancer.
Removal of all or part of the pancreas can lead to a condition called pancreatic insufficiently, in which food cannot be normally processed by the body, and insulin secretion may be inadequate. These conditions can be treated with pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy, to supply digestive enzymes, and insulin injections, to supply insulin.

Chemotherapy: A treatment of the cancer with synthetic drugs that destroy the tumor either by inhibiting the growth of the cancerous cells or by killing the cancer cells.

Radiation Therapy: A treatment using high energy radiation from x-ray machines, cobalt, radium, or other sources.

Early Post operative treatment: Hospital stays vary from 12 to 23 days, depending on the seriousness of the intervention. Following discharge from hospital, a number of concerns can arise. These concern both the asymptomatic patient, and the identification, differential diagnosis, and therapy of possible late complications.
Aftercare of asymptomatic patients: no aftercare is initiated for patients with any symptoms (patients who feel well, with no pain or weight loss).

Patients might suffer from the following problems post treatment such as:
Bile duct stenoses: Bile duct stenosis requiring treatment occurs in around 2 to 4 % patients. In this case either percutaneous transhepatic or other surgical revision must take place.
Pain: Around 80% of the people suffer through pain after treatment of pancreatic cancer or post surgery. In this case of persistent pain, it can be related to the progression of the disease or a result from complications and should be treated according to the WHO staging system.
Vitamin deficiency, Weight loss after pancreatic carcinoma resection, Exocrine insufficiency, Malnutrition and maldigestion are some other common problems that can arise post treatment and hence proper aftercare medications and procedures are necessary to be undertaken.