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:

1. surgical bypass to ease the symptoms of jaundice and itching
    
2. 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.
    
3. insulin therapy to help control healthy blood
    
4. 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.

One of the pancreatic cancer survivors we came across had first chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink her tumor. She then underwent pancreatic cancer surgery to get her cancer totally removed.

This is only 1 pancreatic cancer story of the 40.000 people that get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the US each year. For all patients combined:

• the one-year pancreatic cancer survival rate is 24%
   
• the five-year pancreatic cancer rate is about 5%.

Please participate and join your pancreatic cancer story to help others coping
with their pancreatic cancer.

Which pancreatic cancer treatment to choose

If the answer was only as straightforward as the question. Just like liver cancer, pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat depending on:

• pancreatic cancer stage, with as usual less success when the cancer has spread
   
• age, physical and mental health of the cancer patient.

We will highlight the 6 most common treatments:

• Pancreatic Cancer Surgery
   
• Pancreatic cancer radiation treatment
   
• Pancreatic cancer chemotherapy
   
• Pancreatic cancer vaccine
   
• Targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer
   
• Biological treatment

Pancreatic Cancer Surgery

Pancreatic cancer surgery is still the most successful pancreatic cancer treatment when the cancer hasn’t spread beyond the pancreas to:

• other organs,
   
• blood vessels or
   
• lymph nodes.

The good news is that theoretically a person can live without his pancreas. Of course this will be a mayor drawback when it comes to digesting food since the pancreas produces enzymes necessary to digest your food. Yet it can be dealt with by nutritional care and counseling. Removing the total pancreas is called ‘total pancreatectomy’.

Most pancreatic cancer surgery will "only" remove part of the pancreas. Surgery on the top part of the pancreas will remove the cancer including:

• the right-most part of the pancreas,
• the gallbladder,
• part of the stomach,
• the lower half of the bile duct and part of the small intestine.

The wounds are then all joined together to the small intestine. Removing part of the pancreas this way is called ‘pancreatoduodenectomy’ or ‘Whipple procedure’.

Surgery on the bottom part of the pancreas will remove the body and bottom -tail- of the pancreas. This surgery is called ‘distal pancreatectomy’ : named after the removal of the so called ‘islet cell cancer’ or (endocrine) cancer.

The more experienced your surgeon is, the less likely complications will show up during the surgery, so in case of surgery, do ask around where and by whom it is normally done.

Pancreatic cancer radiation treatment

If the pancreatic cancer cannot be removed surgically, there is still an option to remove it using radiation therapy called ‘external beam radiation therapy‘.

Radiation therapy can also be used during surgery called ‘intraoperative radiation therapy’. The patient will be cut open and the surgeon will remove the visible pancreatic cancer tumors. Then the organs around the pancreas will be pushed aside so an "higher than normal dose of radiation therapy" will be given (since the other organs won’t be affected like during external beam radiation therapy).

Radiation therapy together with chemotherapy is also used after pancreatic cancer surgery to prevent the recurrence of the cancer.

Pancreatic cancer chemotherapy

As stated above, chemotherapy may be used after pancreatic cancer surgery to prevent the recurrence of pancreatic cancer.

When surgery is no longer an option, chemotherapy can be used to reduce the rate of cancer growth. In other words it will be a cancer treatment when the patient is in palliative care to prolong life or for pain management.

Pancreatic cancer research is done on the following pancreatic cancer drugs:

• gemcitabine,
   
• irinotecan,
   
• paclitaxel,
   
• flavopiridol and
   
• exatecan.

The idea is to combine chemotherapy with radiation therapy in order to make the radiation therapy more effective and is called ‘chemoradiation’. Chemoradiation is typically used to treat pancreatic cancer that has spread but only to nearby organs.

Chemoradiation may also be used after surgery to reduce the risk that pancreatic cancer may recur.

Targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer

Targeted drug therapy uses drugs like erlotineb or Tarceva and cetuximab or Erbitux to attack specific abnormalities within cancer cells. These drugs form an emerging area in cancer treatment.

The best known targeted drug is erlotinib or Tarceva. It blocks chemicals that signal cancer cells to grow and divide. It’s usually combined with chemotherapy to treat patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Another drug now under investigation in clinical trials is cetuximab or Erbitux. This drug targets the same signals as Tarceva but in a different way.

Pancreatic cancer vaccine

So far research is done on pancreatic cancer vaccines for pancreatic cancer survivors.

The idea of the vaccine is to prevent recurrence after cancer has appeared. Unfortunately this sounds misleading when you though that the vaccine was like any other vaccine: to prevent a disease from ever occurring in the first place.

Biological treatment

Biological treatment means your body needs to fight the cancer. Like with any other disease, biological therapy uses the body’s immune system for fighting cancer. Also called ‘biological therapy’ or ‘biological response modifier therapy’ (BRM therapy).

All sounds fancy and logical, but unfortunately it’s only in a research stage. The idea is to use materials made by your body or made in the laboratory to direct, enhance or restore your body’s natural defences against the cancer.

Again, the most logical way to fight and prevent any disease.

Although there are at least 6 different pancreatic cancer treatments,
still more than 30.000 people will die of pancreatic cancer in the US in 2008.

Not many patients are surviving pancreatic cancer after the second year of their diagnosis, no matter whether they are taking chemotherapy or not treating the cancer with any known cancer treatment.

What happens when pancreatic cancer treatment no longer work?

When there are no more pancreatic cancer cures available, the medical world kind of leaves you in a bitter cold. You become a terminal cancer patient and doctors prefer to put their efforts and attention in curing patients.

This means you can still get cancer treatments, but they will only try to improve your quality of life. Where quality of life with chemotherapy side effects most often boils down to living longer therefore not in a better shape.

Palliative care

The new word in a pancreatic cancer end stage will be called"palliative care".

When a cancer patient has received different cancer treatments and they do not work, then over time the cancer tends to become resistant to all treatment.

At this time it is important to weight the cost and benefits of new treatment against possible downsides. For father the choice was:

• die because of cancer or
   
• die because of the side effects of chemotherapy

It may come to a point where you just have to plan on surviving as long as you can with the odds against you.. This is likely the most difficult time in your battle against pancreatic cancer.

Hospice and palliative care

What is important is living your life in the best comfort possible.

You do need to seek hospice and palliative treatments during this time.

Palliative treatments will help relieve the symptoms of your cancer, especially the pain it involves, and its main purpose is to improve your quality of life.

It’s quite hard to talk about quality of life when one of your body organs is shutting down…

At some point you may benefit from hospice care in the hospital but most of the time, this can be given at home.

Pancreatic cancer survival : gemcitabine is no miracle cure

Like what we thought about the other "miracle cancer cure" Xeloda – which is a chemotherapy in a pill – gemcitabine is no miracle cancer treatment either.

According to Dr. Tempero, gemcitabine improved survival duration in comparison with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), with 6-month and 12-month rates of 46% and 18% vs 31% and 2%, respectively. 5-FU would have been the chemotherapy of choice is father would have opted for chemotherapy.

The best way of surviving pancreatic cancer is combining:

• conventional chemotherapy while
   
• boosting your immune system with alternative cancer treatments.

As long as conventional drugs don’t promise pancreatic cancer cures, your best defense in surviving pancreatic cancer lies in your own immune system.

If you are like me and you or your loved one gets cancer: you start looking on the Internet for answers, the latest treatments and similar cancer stories. We want to make your search a bit easier since time is suddenly overly precious.

Please ask any question that’s on your mind about cancer and we will answer you or find another cancer story that relates to your question.

Make sure you ask your doctor any question that comes through your mind and when they answer like what they did with us: "stop reading the Internet about cancer"… make sure you devote your time wisely with your loved one. Once he sleeps because the cancer does take away their energy, make sure you sleep enough yourself or use that time to surf the Internet.

Save some time buying the recommended cancer books,especially the Guaranteed Method For Beating Cancer, as it comes with a money back guarantee… You will find too many people trying to promise you cancer treatments you never heard of: make sure you only step into those that offer a money guarantee! (not many will do, cancer is not the easiest disease to cure…)

Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti dies at age 71 with pancreatic cancer.

Pavarotti pancreatic cancer

Pavarotti had pancreatic cancer surgery on July 2008 and died on Thursday at the age of 71.

Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and had surgery in July 2006 at a New York hospital to remove a pancreatic tumour.

He cancelled all remaining concerts for his Worldwide Farewell Tour and since then had not made any public appearances.

The tenor underwent another two weeks of pancreatic cancer treatments last month, and was released from hospital in his hometown of Modena, Italy on Aug. 25. He was being attended to at home by cancer specialists up until his death at 5 a.m. local time.

Surviving pancreatic cancer is not easy and passing away from cancer is even a worse battle. Pavarotti fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. He remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.

Pavarotti’s pancreatic cancer death comes the day after he received a new government award for his work in promoting Italian culture in Italy and abroad.

He became the first recipient of the Excellence in Italian Culture Award, the Italian Culture Ministry said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Pancreatic cancer survival rate is low with the cancer usually being fatal. Only a 4 per cent survival rate five years after pancreatic cancer detection. Up to 80 per cent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within the first year.

Faced with speculation in July that Pavarotti was close to death, his second wife Nicoletta Mantovani told Italian newspaper La Stampa: "He’s fighting like a lion and he has never lost his heart."

Pavarotti pancreatic cancer left in grieve three daughters with his first wife and one with his second wife.

Having lived through this before, I can easily predict Pavarotti’s cancer is getting the upper hand since he has more cancer tests this week.

Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti is to stay in hospital for tests related to his pancreatic cancer. The tenor has been in hospital in Modena, Italy, since being admitted with a fever almost two weeks ago.

Despite reports suggesting he had been given the all-clear to leave last week, doctors have now said he will be kept in for at least a few more days.

As far as I remember my father’s metastatic liver cancer prognosis, "a few days" was needed in order to do further tests, scans and a liver biopsy.

Pavarotti, 71, has not been seen in public since he had pancreatic cancer surgery to remove a tumour from his pancreas in July 2006.

A statement from the hospital said several "basic pathological tests" would be carried out in the days to come. The singer is being treated on the cancer ward.

The Modena University Policlinico hospital echoed that, describing his condition as "satisfactory". This is what some doctors say when the patient is terminal but still has a good quality of life.

On 14 August, his manager Terri Robson said the singer would be leaving hospital "imminently" – but his wife Nicoletta Mantovani later said he preferred to stay because he felt more comfortable there.

Pavarotti, widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest opera singers, has been dogged by ill health in recent years. Most likely these were the undetected symptoms pointing to the Pavarotti cancer.

Pavarotti had his fifth cycle of pancreatic cancer radiotherapy and according to his wife, Pavarotti is reacting well and "fighting like a lion" against his pancreatic cancer.

"I can now say he is doing well," Nicoletta Mantovani said in an interview published Wednesday in the Italian daily La Stampa.

The 71-year-old opera star underwent pancreatic cancer surgery after doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic cancer in the same month last year.

We need to point out that the pancreatic cancer survival rate drops significantly after 1 year of diagnosis so we hope it’s not the last stage of pancreatic cancer Pavarotti is fighting against.

Earlier this month, Diva e Donna, an Italian women’s magazine, quoted one of Pavarotti’s daughters, Giuliana, as saying her father "knows he will die soon." Mantovani said the quotes were taken out of context.

The good news is that the family he adores is by his side. He’s determined and results are encouraging. Despite the heavy pancreatic cancer treatments, he has not lost weight, which by the way he would have liked!

Last week, Pavarotti’s manager said the famed tenor was teaching and working on a recording of sacred music. According to Mantovani, he is also considering resuming the "Pavarotti and Friends" benefit concert that used to take place annually in his hometown of Modena, Italy.

We wish Pavarotti well after his cycles of pancreatic cancer radiotherapy!

Superstar tenor Luciano Pavarotti has undergone pancreatic cancer surgery. The surgery was successful, but as a result of Mr. Pavarotti’s course of pancreatic cancer treatments: his remaining 2006 dates of his farewell tour have been canceled.

Terminal pancreatic cancer

Last week, just before Mr. Pavarotti was due to leave New York for Europe, doctors performing a round of routine medical checkups discovered a malignant pancreatic cancer.

Thanks to this weeks surgery for pancreatic cancer, this tumor has been successfully removed and Mr. Pavarotti is now recovering in a New York hospital.

Mr. Pavarotti is to undergo further pancreatic cancer treatments over the next few months, which can only mean that the surgery hasn’t removed all the cancers. One can imagine the cancer could have spread to the liver, but this are merely speculations.

In good spirits, Mr. Pavarotti is planning to restart his tour in 2007.

This year Mr. Pavarotti had already canceled several concerts for health problems, including complications from back and neck surgery. According his doctors, the pancreatic cancer was not related to those medical issues.

Dr. Elliot Newman, chief of gastrointestinal surgical oncology at N.Y.U. Cancer Institute, said the most common type of pancreatic cancer was also the most dangerous, with a pancreatic cancer survival rate after five years of about 10 to 14 percent. Other types of pancreatic cancer have much higher pancreatic cancer cure rates.

Concerning Mr. Pavarotti, spokeswoman Ms. Robson would not say what type of cancer was diagnosed.

According to the American Cancer Society, about 33,730 people in the United States will be found to have pancreatic cancer in 2006.

We wish Mr. Pavarotti a good recovery after this pancreatic cancer surgery.

Read what you can do to prevent and cure cancer: Steve Jobs pancreatic cancer is one of the rare cases that has proven pancreatic cancer cures to battle it. Steve Jobs has a rare islet-cell neuroendocrine tumor which is far more curable than other forms of the disease.

What is Steve Jobs pancreatic cancer type?

There are several kinds of pancreatic cancer. Steve Jobs pancreatic cancer is one of five types that begin in hormone-producing cells.

These types of tumors tend to be slow-growing, which is great news when you detect the cancer in an early stage.

How does Steve Jobs islet-cell tumor differ from pancreatic adenocarcinoma?

About 85% of pancreatic cancers are called adenocarcinomas. These cancers grow quickly and are far more deadly than the type of islet-cell cancer that Steve Jobs has.

How common is pancreatic cancer?

According to the American Cancer Society, 31,860 Americans were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004.

Islet-cell cancers are very rare, however, with only 200 to 1,000 new cases a year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

What is the pancreatic cancer survival rate?

According to Dr. Tempero, islet-cell cancers that have not spread beyond the pancreas are often curable.

In general, only 4.4% of pancreatic cancer patients survive five years or more, according to the American Cancer Society. This means that 31,270 Americans will die from pancreatic cancer this year 2004.

Although pancreatic cancer is not as common as other tumors, its deadliness makes it the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the USA.

In comparison, doctors diagnose 220,000 cases of prostate cancer a year, and 28,900 men die from it.

How are pancreatic islet-cell cancers cured?

If the cancer is confined to the pancreas, doctors may operate to remove the tumor. Often, no other treatment is needed.

What are the side effects of pancreatic surgery treatment?

In the long term, pancreatic surgery may increase the risk of diabetes, depending on how much of the pancreas is removed.

Pancreatic cancer causes

Doctors don’t know what exactly causes most cases of pancreatic cancer. It is a fact that heavy smoking increases the risk by two to three times.

Diets filled with meat and fat also may contribute to the disease.

Those at greater risk include:

• African-Americans,
   
• people older than 50,
   
• men,
   
• diabetics and
   
• those with a family history of pancreatic cancer.

Chronic inflammation of the pancreas and exposure to certain chemicals also can cause pancreatic cancer.

What is the pancreas?

The pancreas is a gland located behind the stomach with two vital functions:

• making hormones, such as insulin, that help regulate blood sugar
   
• secreting juices that aid digestion.

What are there risk factors for pancreatic cancer? Can it be prevented?

Leading a healthy lifestyle Exercising, avoiding tobacco and eating a low-fat, vegetable-rich diet may offer some protection.

Steve Jobs Pancreatic cancer summarized

Steve Jobs is unlucky to have cancer but lucky enough to have a curable cancer. He will be living for years to come with a quality of life as good as before he was diagnosed with cancer.

In order to prevent yourself from getting cancer we recommend:

• eat less meat and almost completely cut down on processed meat
   
• don’t smoke
   
• cut out as much stress as possible – even when that means a smaller salary -
   
• find quality of life and emphasize doing the things you love to do when you are still in good health
   
• maintaining your health as your first and only asset

We recommend you to live as healthy as possible in order to … keep on living healthy free of cancer.