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Different Treatment Options For Cancer

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The different treatment options available for cancer vary depending on which cancer has been diagnosed. Pancreatic cancer which affects the pancreas and surrounding lymph nodes and tissue, is the 4th leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States (pancreatic.org) and when compared to the other leading cancers in mortality rates, 94% of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnoses and only 7% will survive more than five years. According to the Hirschberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, 74% of patients will die within the first year of diagnoses of pancreatic cancer and the chances of recovering depend on which stage a patient has been diagnosed with (cancer.gov).
If a patient is diagnosed with…show more content…
The surgery is hard to perform because the pancreas is a soft tissue and filled with blood and liquid etc. therefore making it hard to cut and remove. Chemotherapy is offered after the surgery, if it is performed to try and prevent the cancer returning. If the pancreatic cancer is metastatic, chemotherapy is offered to help with quality of life and trying to extend the patient’s life.
The most common type of pancreatic cancer is Pancreatic adenocarcinoma, which ‘starts in the glands’, and about ‘95% of cancers of the exocrine pancreas are adenocarcinomas. These cancers usually begin in the ducts of the pancreas’ (cancer.org). Endocrine tumors of the ‘pancreas are less common, making up less than 4% of all pancreatic cancers’ (cancer.org).
Pancreatic cancer ‘may cause only vague symptoms that could indicate many different conditions within the abdomen or gastrointestinal tract’ (pancreatic.org) such as back pain, jaundice, nausea, weight loss etc. you could be at risk of developing this form of cancer if the disease runs in your family, if you smoke, your age also affects your outcome, diabetes can also aid in causing this disease. The national cancer institute ‘There are three ways that cancer spreads in the body. Cancer can spread through tissue, the lymph system, and the blood’. If the cancer spreads from where it originally started and goes into nearby areas. Another way for the cancer to spread is via the lymph
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