The pancreas is an organ that is located behind the stomach and produces digestive juices to help break down food and also makes hormones including those to regulate blood sugar levels. According to Dr G Vamshi Krishna Reddy, Director-Oncology Services, Consultant Medical Oncologist & Hemato Oncologist, Yashoda Hospitals Hyderabad, Pancreatic cancer is one the leading causes of cancer worldwide and usually has an aggressive clinical course.
Causes /Risk Factors:
Several risk factors have been implicated in pancreatic cancer:
- Cigarette Smoking: It increases the risk of pancreatic cancer, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked
- Obesity: BMI >30kg/m2 is associated with higher risk
- Physical Inactivity
- Diabetes Mellitus: Numerous epidemiologic studies describe an association between diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer. Increasing data support the view that abnormal glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, and hyperinsulinemia are etiologic factors for pancreatic cancer. New onset diabetes in a thin older adult should be evaluated for pancreatic cancer with a CT scan.
- Cystic fibrosis
- Pancreatic cysts
- Chronic pancreatitis
- Family history and heredity: 5-10% of cases occur in families suggesting a familial predisposition
Symptoms:
- Most people with pancreatic cancer have abdominal pain and weight loss, with or without jaundice.
- Pain is a common symptom.
- Some people lose weight because of a lack of appetite, feeling full after eating only a small amount of food.
- Jaundice causes yellow colouring of the skin and eyes. Jaundice is caused by a blockage in the flow of bile through the ducts that come from the liver and gallbladder to the intestine. The blockage is caused by the cancer.
Prevention
There are a few tips to reduce your risk of pancreatic cancer:
- Avoid smoking
- Moderate physical activity
- Maintain ideal body weight, target BMI to less than 25kg/m2
- Diet: Higher intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, milk and beans, and oils [nonhydrogenated vegetable oils and those found in fish, nuts, and seeds] and lower intake of saturated fat, sodium, and calories from solid fat, alcohol, and added sugar
Advances in treatment:
The earliest stage pancreatic cancers (stages I or II) can often be treated, and even cured, with surgery. Robotic surgery is being increasingly used in the surgical management of pancreatic cancer.
Radiation therapy with advanced techniques like MR-LINAC or SBRT is used in locally advanced pancreatic cancer, where surgery is not feasible.
Chemotherapy is used in advanced-stage pancreatic cancer. Newer agents like immunotherapy and targeted therapy with PARP inhibitors are useful in a few patients who show mismatch repair deficiency and mutations in BRCA1/2 respectively.
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