Learn what to expect from a patient in last stages of pancreatic cancer disease.
It's difficult to make a clear prognosis. Look at Patrick Swayze (see above picture) whose cancer has spread to his liver. He is undergoing chemotherapy, people say he is undergoing clinical trials with new medicines but what is the most amazing: he keeps on working 12 hours a day.
Other people who are categorized in the last stages of pancreatic cancer are completely bed-ridden. So Patrick Swayze is doing something right: will power is an important factor when you want to treat cancer.
What is pancreatic cancer?
Each year in the United States pancreatic cancer is causing
- about 43.000 people getting diagnosed with it and
- about 35.000 people to die from it.
Depending on the extent of the cancer at the time of diagnosis, pancreatic cancer treatment is not often successful. The prognosis is poor with less than 5 % diagnosed being alive five years later.
Yet statistics are exactly that: numbers on paper. Whatever you read in books about pancreatic cancer cures, YOU are the only factor that's different.
In order to treat any cancer, you have to do everything right.
You need to believe you can beat the cancer and apart from a pancreatic cancer diet, you have to start eating only organic food. You need lots of love, eliminate stress and believe you can be cured. Only when you do everything right, pancreatic cancer treatments will become more successful.
End stage pancreatic cancer
Once the pancreatic cancer has spread too much to the surrounding organs and tissues (stage 4 pancreatic cancer) , it would not be possible to completely remove the cancerous tumors by surgery.
In this case, the primary goal of the doctors or health care personnel will be providing treatments to make the patient more comfortable. The terms used here is "palliative care" and actually means: making a patient more comfortable knowing there is no cure.
Some of the end stage pancreatic treatments include:
- surgical bypass to ease the symptoms of jaundice and itching
- stent insertion in the bile duct to keep it open. This is normally done for patients who have metastatic cancer or who are very weak.
- insulin therapy to help control healthy blood
- pain management. Pain is always a real concern in the later stages of cancer. Treatment with morphine or similar medications will provide relief in many cases. Just that painkillers cause constipation.
Itching is said to be the last stage in metastatic liver cancer as well, when a pancreatic cancer has spread to the liver its obvious that jaundice and itchiness are symptoms of the last stages of pancreatic cancer.