Informative Essay On Pancreatic Cancer

There are three words in this world that can inevitably destroy someone’s life in a heartbeat. Those three words are, “You have cancer”. Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer related death in the United States alone. Furthermore, it is the 11th most common diagnosed cancer in men and the 9th most common in women (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2017). It is known as the silent killer because symptoms do not become apparent until it is too late. Unfortunately, only about 8% of patients diagnosed are able to survive (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2017). Similar to most cancers, pancreatic cancer comes in four stages: 1 being the least amount of spreading among the body and 4 being the most amount of spreading among the

This cancer develops when cells grow in an uncontrolled manner and form masses or tumors. Tumors of the pancreas can be benign or malignant. Being refers to when a tumor does not have the ability to spread to other areas of the body, however, malignant tumors can spread to other areas of the body and can be fatal. Genetic mutations are common among patients who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, 2017). Patients receive a copy of an intact gene and a copy of the mutated gene. As cells reproduce in the body, copies of the mutated gene are also being reproduced. At this point, the body will stop producing the half mutated gene and will start producing fully mutated genes. This is when the pancreas will become infested with mutated genes that will continue to grow and reproduce without intervention. If there is one cell that contains a mistake in the DNA sequence, this mistake will continue to reproduce and grow (The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, 2017). Tumors within the pancreas can be endocrine or exocrine. Exocrine tumors are the most common among pancreas tumors. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma arises from abnormal cells lining the pancreatic duct that is due to the mistakes within the cell cycle. Other rare forms of exocrine tumors include acinar cell carcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma, and mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. Endocrine tumors are more

There is a scale for tumor size, lymph node status, metastasis (National Pancreas Foundation, 2018). Tumor size is measured by T1-T4. T1 and T2 indicate that the tumor has not spread and is still relatively small. However T3 and T4 indicate that the tumor is large enough to have spread to neighboring organs. Lymph node status is determined by N0 and N1. N0 indicates there is no lymph nodes contain cancer, N1 indicates that there are lymph nodes containing cancer. Metastasis is measured by M0 and M1. M0 indicates the tumor has not spread and M1 indicates the tumor is spreading. Pancreatic cancer is split up into four remaining categories. The stages 1-4 indicate the severity and type of tumor that is present within the body (National Pancreas Foundation, 2018). Stage 1 has the best outcome and indicates that the tumor has not spread and remains relatively small. Stage 2 requires some type of spreading of the cancer, but there is no cancer present in the lymph nodes. Stage 3 involves a large tumor and has spread to the lymphatic system. At this stage, the cancer is capable of spreading to other organs. Stage 4 is the most dangerous type of pancreatic cancer. This stage shows that there is confirmation of the tumor being spread to other neighboring organs. This stage does not have a good prognosis and requires very aggressive treatment