Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Case Study

The risk factors of pancreatic cancer are habits that most Americans have developed and can not seem to break. There are five major risk factors that people should consider which include the following; Genetics, Diabetes, Smoking, Obesity and Diet (Wax, 2012). Pancreatic cancer runs in five to ten percent of people who have immediate family members who have also had it (Wax, 2012). Different genes have been indicated as risk but no “pancreatic cancer gene” has yet been discovered (Wax, 2012). “People with diabetes develop Pancreatic cancer about twice as often then people without it” (Margolis, 2002, p.497) and the two diseases have been linked (Wax, 2012). Tobacco use is known to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer (Cancer Research UK, 2013). Smoking will double the risk in developing the disease (Wax, 2012). People, who quit smoking, can reduce the risk of pancreatic, lung, mouth, and certain other cancers and diseases. It is a known fact that people with a body mass index ( BMI) higher

Pancreatic Cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Currently there is no cure for this cancer and all available treatments simply prolong the life of the patient. Diagnosing pancreatic cancer rarely occurs at the onset of the disease due to the location of the pancreas in the body. Symptoms such as weight loss and upper abdominal pain do not show up until it is too late. Enzymes produced by tumors known as tumor markers are not reliable until the disease has well progressed. Once you have been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer there are different types of treatments that are offered to prolong your life.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer. The cancer is normally not found till it's in the further stages. Pancreatic cancer is when tumors are formed in the pancreas. There are two types of Pancreatic cancer,endocrine and endocrine tumors.Exocrine is the most common type of pancreatic cancer. The main type of Exocrine tumor is Pancreatic adenocarcinoma. About 95% of exocrine tumors are pancreatic adenocarcinoma. This type of cancer usually begins in the ducts of the pancreas. Endocrine tumors and uncommon and make up less than 4% of pancreatic cancer. They both occur in people over 40, and a little more common in men. Pancreatic cancer cause is still unknown, research shows that damage to the DNA can be a cause. It is also

CA 19-9 is a type of tumor marker for pancreatic cancer. It mostly used to help in differentiating between pancreatic cancer and other conditions which include pancreatitis, monitor, to monitor patient’s response to the treatment of pancreatic cancer or cancer progression and to watch for the recurrence of pancreatic cancer (Hui et al., 2015).

Mutations (for most cancers) must appear in both tumour suppressing genes and oncogenes for cancers to form. The tumour suppressing genes and oncogenes act in complementary fashion to one another; one pulls forward, and the other pushes back ensuring that the cell cycle occurs in a controlled manner (Sherr, 2004).

As humans we are designed to overcome problems and mysteries and pancreatic cancer is one of our biggest challenges we have encountered in our modern

Pancreatic carcinoma (P.C) is a malignant disease of the pancreas and one of the top ten leading causes of cancer deaths in the UK. This type of cancer is one of the few which has shown a small improvement in the survival rate. On average, the age at which patients are diagnosed with such disease is at 71 years of age and with a minimum of 40 years old in rare accounts. Whilst the risk of developing such disease is greater in developed than developing countries, various factors either lifestyle factors or hereditary can metamorphose into risk factors and become cancer causing. The pathophysiology of this type of cancer is complex and involves modification of the DNA by various ways such as point mutation, indels, gene rearrangement and more. Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is difficult as it is an organ found quite deep in the body so any anomalies co go unnoticed during routine examinations. The incidence aswell as the mortality of

The long-term outcome of pancreatic cancer is extremely poor, the overall median survival from diagnosis being 3 - 6 months without treatment, which increases to around 23 months with resectional surgery and adjuvant treatment. Pancreatic cancer is characterized by resistance to all cancer treatment modalities and early metastasis. Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment for pancreatic cancer. Curative surgery is rare. Although it improves the otherwise poor prognosis, it is essentially palliative

The incidence and prevalence of these differential diagnoses are another important consideration. When considering Appendix B in further detail, AP has an incidence rate between 9.8 to 37.8 per 100,000. In Canada, approximately 15,100 individuals are diagnosed with pancreatitis each year. The incidence tends to be highest between the age category of 40-70 years old (Teshima, Bridges & Fedorak, 2012). The prevalence rate of 2.5 percent of AP (Yadav & Lowenfels, 2013). AP is however more likely in men than in women. Additionally, certain drugs may also increase the incidence of AP such as azithromycin, or estrogen-progesterone combination pills. AMI has a prevalence of 2.5 percent. (Manuel, Lim, Tanuseputro & Stukel, 2007). The incidence of

Tumour cells contain many mutated and misregulated genes, some of which the tumour requires for its survival, growth or metastasis. Overexpressed proteins have previously made good drug targets, for example Trastuzumab targets Her2 in breast cancer and Gleevec targets BCR-ABL in CML. When studying a potential novel drug target, I would search the literature and online databases such as Oncomine to determine whether the gene is known to be misregulated or mutated in human cancers. I would be particularly interested in studies on the effects of tumourigenesis when the potential target has been overexpressed or knocked-down/out,

Mitochondrial damage is therefore a serious threat to the viability of the acinar and ductal cells, as well as the pancreas as a whole. Bile acids and ethanol metabolites, among the most common pancreatitis-inducing factors, act by causing the release of stored Ca2+ within the ER and inducing extracellular Ca2+ influx. This prolonged increase in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration leads to mitochondrial Ca2+ overload and decreased intracellular ATP levels. SERCA and PMCA pumps, which remove Ca2+ from the cytoplasm, require ATP to function and will become less active; further contributing to the sustained elevation of cytosolic Ca2+ concentration. This continuous overload causes mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and overall damage to the mitochondria.

Having a diet that is high on red meat and low on fruits and vegetables can increase the risk of having pancreatic cancer.

The clinical aggressiveness observed in PDA is due, in part, to its cellular complexity and its ability to survive in a harsh tumor microenvironment. These factors likely contribute to therapeutic resistance to many therapies. First, PDA is associated with a dense stromal reaction. The tumor mass is composed mainly of the tumor microenvironment and it includes mostly non-neoplastic cells, such as fibroblasts and lymphocytes, and well as non-cellular connective tissue (6, 7). Additionally, the PDA tumor microenvironment also includes a vasculature, but this cancer is classically hypovascular (8). This is evident when these tumors are visualized with contrast-enhanced computed tomography imaging, which shows hypoattenuated lesions when compared to the well-enhancing surrounding pancreatic parenchyma (9). PDAs are also genetically complex. Though common driver-mutations are present in essentially all PDAs (i.e., high-frequency mutations, such as KRAS), there are a significant number of

Pancreatic cancer is known as one of the most aggressive cancer in the current time period. In the United States around 40 000 to 50 000 individuals are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer annually. It is one of the most deadly types of cancer with the 4th highest mortality amongst all cancers. According to (Han Hsi Wong, 2010)an average 5 year survival rate of about 6%. The life span of pancreatic cancer is poor as well with an average life span of around 6months. Reasons as to why this cancer is so deadly is due to the rapid proliferation, late diagnosis and lack of effective treatment options. Current treatment of pancreatic cancer includes whipple procedure or total pancreatectomy which cause many problems as the pancreas is removed. Chemotherapeutic agents include

Cancer occurrs by the production of multiple mutations in a single cell that causes it to proliferate out of control. Cancer cells often different from their normal neighbors by a host of specific phenotypic changes, such as rapid division rate, invasion of new cellular territories, high metabolic rate, and altered shape. Some of those mutations may be transmitted from the parents through the germ line. Others arise de novo in the somatic cell lineage of a particular cell. Cancer-promoting mutations can be identified in a variety of ways. They can be cloned and studied to learn how they can be controlled.