Pancreatic Cancer Symptoms

Steve Jobs Dead

2011-10-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

7 years after first announcing he was diagnosed with cancer, Steve Job was found dead in the surroundings of his family yesterday October 5th, 2011.

Steve Jobs suffered from a rare pancreatic cancer known as "islet of Langerhans cell neuroendocrine tumors" or "pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors". The good news is that these tumors grow very slow and can be successfully treated after they have spread. The side effects of these tumors however are no easy treat, as the endocrine gland produces hormones and with extra tumors, extra hormones will be secreted.

Steve Jobs, the thinker-outside-the-box that he is, went for alternative treatment before opting for a Whipple Procedure to remove the cancer.
This was announced to be a success without further needing to undergo chemo nor radiation.

In 2006 Jobs appeared thinner than before although Apple announced that Steve was in a robust state of health. One can imagine if you take away a part of the pancreas that is overly important for your digestion, that your weight will decrease.

In 2008 his looks unveiled that Steve's health was not an all thumbs up, but rumors said he was on antibiotics or that again the Whipple Procedure just causes a person to keep on losing weight.
According to The New York Times, Steve Jobs health issues were not life-threatening nor was there a recurrence of the pancreatic cancer.

Begin January 2011, Steve Jobs announced that for several months already he was suffering from an imbalance of the hormones, which is the primary function of a healthy pancreas: getting the right amount of hormones in the body to let it function optimally, especially when it comes to digesting food. This announcement started his 6 month absence of leave from Apple.

4 months later, Steve had a liver transplant, which could speculate that his cancer had spread to his liver. However the official story is that Steve Job's prognosis was excellent, and as far as we know, no livers are given to a person that has a cancer that spread to the liver. Apart from the normal distress that is associated as a side effect of immunosuppressive medications in order for the body not to reject the new liver, the immune system now is in a dilemma of sorts:

how not reject the new liver and at the same time do what it is supposed to do:
how to reject any unwanted cancer cell?

In the beginning of this year, Steve took again medical leave, yet still appeared at major Apple launch events.

On August 24th, Steve resigned as CEO of Apple.

On October 5th, Steve Job was found dead in the peaceful surroundings of his family. We send our condolences to his family and friends.

Pancreatic cancer prognosis

2010-08-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

It's always the same: the doctor gives you a grim pancreatic cancer prognosis related to your loved one or friend has cancer, and immediately you go online to gather as much information you can.

I just want to compare it with father's metastatic liver cancer and since the outcome of e.g. father, Pavarotti and Patrick Swayze is the same, sometimes you wonder why you still hope to find a different answer on the internet? Because hope is a fundamental necessity in order to survive.

In our local community I am getting recognized as "the cancer specialist". Gosh, I am not! Doctors specialize for years and years in 1 type of cancer, so I am no specialist. I do know about palliative care and I do know how cancer changes the live of a person and his dearest beloved ones. So I am trying to live up to people's expectations. In the end the questions are more or less the same, and for sure the anger, pain and fear that rises with the disease, are similar as well.

The chance of recovery and treatment options for pancreatic cancer will depend on whether can the tumor be removed by surgery.

Other factors to take into consideration are the stage of the cancer:

whether it is localized

or has spread to surrounding nearby tissues or lymph nodes or to other parts of the body.

The patient’s general health is also important and whether the cancer has just been diagnosed or it is a recurrence. In the end: once you have seen one cancer, it seems that the general answers are quite similar... I could have said the above also about father's metastatic liver cancer.

Pancreatic cancer can be controlled only if it is detected early before it has spread and surgery is possible.

If however if the cancer has spread, the prognosis would be poor and palliative treatment can improve the qualify of life.

You all need to know that "quality of life' is a buzz word used by doctors and nurses. It's up to you and your loved ones to give your personal answer on what is meant by quality of life. You will learn that things are relative...

Pancreatic Cancer Cure

2010-08-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

3 years after father passed away, months after Patrick Swayze went the same direction, I wonder: are we ever going to find a pancreatic cancer cure?

I think the first thing I did when I heard about fathers cancer, was googling for a cure. What could be we do to battle the disease?

For what I read on the Internet and what happens with almost any cancer: they are far advanced by the time any symptoms appear. Which is why it is so difficult to treat.

As indicated by five-year survival rate of less than 5 %, successful treatment is rare.

It is a disease that is difficult to manage. It is one of the deadliest cancers, killing more than 95% of sufferers – usually within six months of diagnosis.

However, if the pancreatic cancer is found early, surgical removal may cure it. But in reality only 15 to 20% of pancreatic cancers are detected early enough.

For unknown reasons, pancreatic cancer is also relatively resistant to many chemotherapy drugs. However it seems that several newer drugs are beginning to show promise in increasing the response rate to pancreatic cancer treatment.

Seems is not really what you want to hear when you are looking for a cure though...

Types of pancreatic cancer

2010-08-09T04:03:00.000-07:00

"Carcinoma...". Immediately my fathers' adenocarcinoma came to mind. At that time explained by a doctor in our family as "the word they use for this kind of cancer in general"... All I remember is they used a lot of words but never got a cure :-(

There are 3 types of pancreatic cancer:

Types of pancreatic cancer

1. Cancer of the pancreas

This is called carcinoma of the pancreas or pancreatic cancer. This cancer develops in the ducts that carry pancreatic juices to the pancreatic duct and the duodenum. This is the most common type of pancreatic cancer. Surgery is the main cure for pancreatic cancer if that is possible.

2. Cancer in the cells that make insulin and other hormones

This is a rare type of pancreatic cancer and cancer that begins in these cells is called islet cell cancer.

3. Lymphoma of the pancreas

This is a very rare cancer. It's a cancer of the lymphatic systems in the body. As this lymphatic system runs throughout the body, it can be anywhere.

I do remember the doctors saying about father's metastatic liver cancer with unknown primary: since we don't know where the primary cancer is, it might as well be located in the lymphatic system (there could have been an indication in the little hot spot on the MRI scan in father's shoulder). And when it is located in the lymphatic system, again there is nothing we can do...

Pancreatic cancer prognosis

2010-08-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

When you remember the news about Pavarotti's pancreatic Cancer in 2007, then you know that the prognosis can be grim. Just like the prognosis of metastatic liver cancer was grim to us. Not to mention my uncle who died with this disease as well.

Yet I can hear you say: people die all the time. And I can hear others say: I pray that my loved one won't die...

Pancreatic cancer prognosis

Pancreatic cancer is a disease normally associated with older people between the ages of 60 and 80. Men are almost twice as likely to get afflicted with this disease as women.

Countries with the highest frequencies of pancreatic cancer are New Zealand , Western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States .

The lowest occurrences of pancreatic cancer are in Asia, specifically in India , Kuwait and Singapore. Strangely but true: the highest occurrences of Liver cancer are in Asia, so there must be some reason somewhere that's nicely overlooked. Or: the statistics again make no sense.

As pancreatic cancer usually develops quietly and hardly shows any symptoms until at the later stage, when it is more often than not fatal.

Median survival rate from diagnosis is usually less than 6 months while the five year survival rate is only 4%.

Currently the screen methods for early detection are still lacking and because of that, the prognosis for pancreatic cancer generally is poor.

Even when the tumors are localized and surgery to remove it is carried out, the patient survival after five years is only 10 to 15%. This is because there is a good tendency for it to recur and pancreatic cancers are aggressive in nature. Even if radiation and chemotherapy treatments are used, pancreatic cancers tend to be resistant to them.

Pancreatic cancer diet

2010-08-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

In order to prevent cancer, I learned that all red vegetables and fruits are to be eaten as much as possible. "As much as possible" is a crucial factor, that's why it's much better to eat organic tomato paste in stead of eating the same amount of fresh organic tomatoes (it's what in the red color that you need to prevent you from getting cancer).

Cancer diet

Father had metastatic liver cancer and mom's first idea was to cut down on anything fat... Sound logical but when you know that father is dying, then you need to take the quality of life into perspective. That's why we started to make sure we didn't deprive father of anything food-wise!

Pancreatic cancer diet

Patients suffering from pancreatic cancer symptoms not only have to deal with the emotional aspects of having to live with the disease but also with the effects from undergoing treatment: may it be chemotherapy and /or radiation.

As such, it is always helpful to get the advice of a dietitian who can advise you what foods to take to ensure you get all the nourishment your body requires.

Rest assure in father's case due to his liver being filled with tumors, even if you would eat all that's required, the liver just isn't able to deal with it anymore :-(

Pancreatic cancer diet suggestions

Some of the following suggestions may also help to ensure that patients eat healthily and in sufficient amounts to keep their strengths up.

One of the most important things to do is to drink lots of fluid which is necessary to keep the body functioning properly. Again, when father was in his last days of metastatic liver cancer: his body couldn't absorb water anymore, so it was no use to keep on drinking! All depends on the individual person and the stage his body is in!

Meals should be in smaller portions and frequent throughout the day and foods should be soft and easily digested such as soups, congee, soft rice, baked potato, etc. We especially made every day fresh whole meal soups, and we were lucky that soups was one of father's favorite food.

Dietary supplements may also be needed since the body now can’t absorb nutrients easily. For this we added those so called astronaut drinks.

Have lots of fresh fruits as snacks and restrict fats in your diet (though you should follow your doctor’s recommendations for reducing fat in your diet). Again use your common sense: if you can't get healthy at all anymore, then don't deprive yourself!

There will be days when you just can eat at all and you should see a doctor if you don’t feel better in a couple of days.

Pancreatic cancer diet summarized

As usual when one talks about cancer, the answers are blur and it's up to you basically what to do. Summarized: your diet should reflect your prognosis and cure, depending on the type ans stage of your disease: stage 4 pancreatic cancer requires a complete different approach than a pancreatic cancer that can be cured with surgery.

Cure for pancreatic cancer

2010-08-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

One of the most Mediaeval practices is : if your eye hurts you, remove it. 700 years later we are still as barbaric as then when it comes to curing cancer: breast cancer: remove the breasts (mastectomy), pancreatic cancer: remove a part of it (Whipple procedure).

With father's metastatic liver cancer same idea: remove the liver, put in a new one and then do it again as soon as the primary cancer affects the liver again. Hmmmm, patient is 75 years old, although he paid his health insurance all the time, are we really going to do such an expensive procedure? No! Let's tell him that we just did what we could according the given circumstances... Well, that's a kind way to say: you are going to die in 6 months because we don't have a cure and if we did, we are not going to give it to you as you don't have the money to talk!

Cure for pancreatic cancer

The only known cure for pancreatic cancer is only possible if the complete surgical removal of the cancer is possible. This is the only known cure for pancreatic cancer. Only 15 to 20% of people will fall into the “curable” stage at the time of diagnosis.

The cancer is considered resectable which means it is localized and can be completely removed.

Otherwise it is known as unresectable pancreatic cancer and this occurs when the cancer has spread to other surrounding organs or is wrapped around one of the major blood vessels near the pancreas.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Inc (PanCAN) was established in 1999 and is working to focus national attention on the need to find a cure for pancreatic cancer. They provide public and professional education calling for the urgent need for more research, effective treatments, prevention programs and early detection methods for pancreatic cancer.

Steve Jobs pancreatic cancer

2010-08-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's quite astonishing how before father had his metastatic liver cancer, cancer was something that happened like car accidents happen: far away from my daily routine. Until father was diagnosed with cancer and suddenly the whole neighbourhood seems to have cancer. I mean, neighbours suddenly came out with cancer stories, even your own family members whom you didn't see for ages, suddenly have cancer...

A similar thing is happening with pancreatic cancer: first there is Pavarotti, now there is Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs pancreatic cancer

Steve Jobs, the Chief Executive of Apple Computer Inc and the man behind iPod was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.

He underwent a successful operation to remove the cancerous tumor and said that he would not require chemotherapy or radiation treatments. He said he was fortunate that his pancreatic cancer was diagnosed in time and as such, it can be cured by surgical removal.

Jobs also indicated that he did not have the common type of pancreatic cancer called adenocarcinoma which is incurable and life expectancy is only about a year after diagnosis. He said he was fortunate not to have this more common and deadly form of pancreatic cancer.

Adenocarcinoma... that's the word that keeps on running in my mind from all the doctor papers I read about fathers metastatic liver cancer...

Pancreatic cancer survival

2010-08-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

What happens if pancreatic cancer treatment no longer works? Basically the doctors tend to go to their next patient and you are kind of left in the cold when it comes to the medical world: in stead of focusing on a cure, the focus will be on living with as little pain as possible. The new word in your last stage of your life will be "palliative care".

When a patient sometimes has received different medical 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

die because of toxic 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 with the disease.

Palliative care

What is important is that you stay as comfortable as possible and seek palliative treatment during this time.

It will help relieve the symptoms of your cancer and its main purpose is to improve your quality of life. Now this is the theory: it's quite hard to talk about quality when some of your body organs is shutting down.

At some point you may benefit from hospice care but most of the time, this can be given at home. (as long as you fork out the money!). The focus of your care at this stage is to live as fully as possible. Now is also the time to focus on the most important things in your life and never ever to give up hope.

Pancreatic cancer survival : gemcitabine is no miracle cure

Like what we thought about the other "miracle cancer cure" Xeloda: which is chemotherapy in a pill. Sounds less invasive, but the oncologist said: it is still chemotherapy with all the consequences of normal chemotherapy...

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.

Pancreatic Cancer Survival: Impact of gemcitabine on overall survival of patients with resected pancreatic cancer. Adapted from Neuhaus P et al. J Clin Oncol 2005;23[suppl]:311s.

Pancreatic Cancer Walk

2010-08-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

How you can help to raise funds for pancreatic cancer!

Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States . It is a silent killer and this type of cancer spreads easily. Signs and symptoms may not appear until the disease is at the advanced stages. By that time, the cancer would have spread to other parts of the body. Funds are needed for research into the cause and cure of this disease.

Walk for Pancreatic Cancer research at Albany Capital District on Sunday, September 23rd 2007.

This will be their 4th annual walk and it will be held on Sunday, 9/23 at the Bethlehem Town Park in Delmar , NY .

Registration starts at 0900hrs and the walk will start at 0930hrs. Please join, as not everybody is as "lucky" as Steve Jobs...
More funds are needed as it is sad to hear that in the 21st century, one couldn't even detect what fathers' primary cancer was...

Pancreatic cancer diagnosis

2010-07-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

It seems that there is now a way of detecting pancreatic cancer in an early stage without having to do a biopsy of the pancreas! Read more here.

It's based on light and it could be helpful for people who have a high risk factor of getting pancreatic cancer. In other words: for you and me, it's again no miracle diagnosis.

People with high risk of getting pancreatic cancer can now undergo a routine endoscopic biopsy of the duodenum: the upper part of the small intestine just behind your stomach.

When an early-stage pancreatic cancer is present, cells in the duodenum give off different light-scattering effects in this new test.

Seems we are still far from a real practical test and still nobody is talking about cancer prevention :-(

Pancreatic cancer causes

2010-07-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

As part of the digestive system, the pancreas has two important functions which are:

to produce digestive juices and enzymes and

secretes hormones.

People who have close relatives that suffered from pancreatic cancer have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer themselves. In addition a number of genetic diseases have been associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. This includes cancers of various types.

Yet according to researchers, only about 10% of pancreatic cancers are a result of genetic predisposition. A greater number of other factors, such as smoking, diet and chemical exposure are thought to increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Same now what is happening with dad and his colon cancer: there is a great chance that this colon cancer runs in our family (although most family members on father's side live up to a ripe old age, except for the ones that were killed
because of the second world war).

With father's metastatic liver cancer the doctor didn't ask about our families genetic cancer stories, but was more interested in finding the primary cancer, therefore asking about fathers' smoking habits and his exposure to asbestos,
as father has been a lot on construction sides when he was younger...

Alternative pancreatic cancer treatment

2010-07-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Non-traditional approaches to healing are getting popular nowadays especially in cases when standard medical treatment is not able to provide a cure. I still remember the emails I got about liver cleansing when father was diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer.

Alternative therapies may include folk medicine, herbal medicine, diet fads, homeopathy, new age and faith healing, acupuncture, massage, music therapy, naturopathy etc. It is believed that this alternative treatment should be used to complement traditional medicine instead of replacing them in totality.

Anyone looking for alternative treatments should view sites that provide such info with skepticism but with an open mind. If possible look for scientific evidence that a certain procedure works but unfortunately many of these have not been subjected to rigorous scientific testing.

Can God cure cancer?

I just saw on TV a Giant somewhere in Russia that killed his own brain tumor "just by praying" or by cheer luck, who will ever know?

Be aware of the “Placebo Effect” where people when they start believing a certain therapy will work, they sometimes sense an improvement.

It would be prudent to discuss with your own physician or healthcare provider before embarking on any of the new techniques or alternative approaches.

As a last idea I remember somebody talking to father that now he had cancer he should visit Norway... The same person went to Norway himself the next year. Just to say that what other people are saying, sometimes says more about them than about you, your cancer or an eventual cure for your cancer!

Pancreatic cancer stage iv survivors

2010-07-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

If you want to be part of the small group of pancreatic cancer stage iv survivors you need to be very strong!

Stage 4 pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer has reached stage 4 if the tumor has spread from the pancreas to other organs like lungs, kidney or liver. In the last case you then have metastatic liver cancer like father.

Pancreatic cancer stage iv survivors are little

Unfortunately there are no much survivors that underwent chemotherapy. The typical drug used will be 5-FU, the same chemotherapy they advised my father not to take. Why not? Because father would have been killed by the chemotherapy in stead of the metastatic liver cancer. It's a very difficult choice to make.

People with stage 4 pancreatic cancer do get chemotherapy, but you need to know that this is just part of palliative care, meaning, it's not meant to cure you but to make your life as good as possible. As good as possible could mean every 2 weeks chemotherapy of which you will be 1 week vomiting in bed.

But the stage had been set: we are already talking here about palliative care and no more about a cancer cure. As said before, there are very few pancreatic cancer stage iv survivors.

Latest pancreatic cancer treatment

2010-07-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

Researchers from the US Based Radiation Therapy Oncology Group said that according to their findings, a combination of the chemotherapy 5-FU and gemcitabine (Gemzar) should be the new standard treatment for patients who have undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer.

5-FU was also the drug father should have been prescribed if he had opted to undergo chemotherapy. But father kind of made his last joke when he said " F you 5-FU! " ...

The clinical tests involved more than 500 people who suffered from the disease.

About half of them were treated with gemcitabine alone and the other half received gemcitabine along with another chemotherapy treatment with either cisplatin or Eloxatin.

It appears that a combination of other drugs with chemotherapy gemcitabine is able to extend the lives of people whose cancer is already in the advanced stage.

As you can see: there is no mention about quality of life, just mention of "extend the lives" ...

It was also found that higher-than-standard doses of gemcitabine, or combining gemcitabine with oxaliplatin does not seem to benefit sufferers of advanced pancreatic cancer.

All in all not the break through latest pancreatic cancer treatment I was hoping for.

Last stages of pancreatic cancer

2009-06-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Pancreatic cancer treatments

2009-02-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Surviving pancreatic cancer

2009-02-18T00:30:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

Ask your question | Share your pancreatic cancer story

2008-05-26T03:01:00.000-07:00

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/she sleeps because the cancer does take away their energy, make sure you sleep enough yourself or use that time to surf the Internet and look for answers.

Save some time buying our recommended cancer book: Guaranteed Method For Beating Cancer, as it comes with a money back guarantee. Do ask it back when you don't like what you see, no questions asked.

You will encounter people promising you cancer treatments or organ cleansing methods 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 as we all know...)

Share your story, as it's easier to go the cancer road with others that walked the road before...

Whispers of Angels by Pavarotti

2007-09-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

It's getting quite clear now for me that Pavarotti's pancreatic cancer news is helping me to cope with father's loss and getting father's picture back to the foreground of my daily actions. Why Pavarotti?

Because Pavarotti had a powerful voice and that's what this blog is all about: being a powerful voice of cancer patients who don't have any strength anymore to power their voice!

Father was no opera singer, but he and his grandfather (who died having jaundice, so we can only speculate that probably he also had liver cancer and on top of that he died at exactly the same age like father)... Anyway, father and grandfather were very active singers in the local church community.

So it comes with a big detour but father is back to tell me I need to continue to raise awareness that cancer is amongst us and answer as much questions as possible. Because believe me: you can live all your live without much wondering until suddenly you are your loved one gets hit with cancer, and suddenly the questions come poring in.

Why so many questions? Because you can answer a lot but you cannot answer:

why a nice person gets picked to die an ugly cancer death

why anybody of us these days can get cancer so quickly

why human kind is supposedly so advanced, but has no clue why cells become tumors and cancer. After all, we are just a very organized bunch of cell, so what is so difficult that we can't even understand ourselves?

Pancreatic cancer end stage symptoms

2007-09-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

Be prepared that whatever you read in the books doesn't have to apply to yourself or the person you are taking care of. Although father had metastatic liver cancer he actually died of old age in his sleep with a smile on his face (meaning he was not in pain). Father didn't have jaundice and the water in his body never accumulated higher than his knees. This is considered "clean", although from my point of view, metastatic liver cancer still is a very ugly disease.

Pancreatic cancer end stage symptoms

We are no gossip blog so we wont reveal the last days of Pavarotti's pancreatic cancer. We will only talk in general.

If the cancer has spread too much to the surrounding organs and tissues, it would not be possible to completely remove the cancerous tumors by surgery. In which case, the primary goal of the physician or heath care personnel would be to provide treatments to make the patient more comfortable. This will include:

Surgical bypass to ease some of 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 the blood

Pain management as the pain is a real concern in the later stages of the disease. Treatment with morphine or similar medications will provide relief in many cases.

Itching is said to be the last stage in metastatic liver cancer as well, so father never reached that stage, he never had jaundice either. Just normal tears in his eyes...

Stage 4 pancreatic cancer

2007-09-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

I saw the funeral of Pavarotti the day before yesterday. Pavarotti whose voice was silenced by a pancreatic cancer. I was especially moved when Italian fighter jets flew over Pavarotti's hometown, leaving in their trail the colors of the Italian flag. Moved, because father was also in love with airplanes...

It also reminded me on fathers spread metastatic liver cancer, which then reminds me on stage 4... once I let my mind flow free: I keep on thinking, so I better make something positive out of it and write down the thoughts that could be useful for others having cancer.

Stage 4 pancreatic cancer

This stage refers to a new growth which has invaded surrounding tissues and has spread to other organs such as the liver, lungs or adjacent organs including the stomach, spleen and or the bowel.

Treatment during stage 4 pancreatic cancer

Treatment may be one of the following:-

surgery or other treatments to alleviate symptoms

pain management (which means palliative care, in proper English: the patient is going to die and we doctors cannot do anything anymore)

clinical trials of chemotherapy or biological therapy

Stage 4 pancreatic cancer can be localized or locally advanced : it is locally confined but involves organs or blood vessels. If it has spread to other distant organs most commonly the liver then it is said to have metastasized.

In the end, as with all cancers, general advice sounds familiar: treatment of Stage 4 pancreatic cancer may consist of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, biological therapy, or a combination of these treatments. Try to give an answer like that if you are going for an interview: how are you going to solve the problem? Well: maybe like so, or so, or so or a combination of all these "so"...

Pavarotti pancreatic cancer

2007-09-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

I just read about the last silent song of Pavarotti due to pancreatic cancer whispering his way all to heaven today...

We wish to send our condolences to Luciano Pavarotti who passed away today with pancreatic cancer. We know that his loved ones have gone a long way already, and we want to give them an extra hug for the long way still ahead.

I was totally unaware that Mr Pavarotti had cancer in the first place. Maybe I didn't notice it in the news?

Again it is sad that people that can get the media still keep cancer into the secret world of silence...

People do need to know that there are to many people around us suffering from cancer and that hardly anything is known why we get cancer and how we can prevent cancer.

So called cancer treatments are providing an industry of lots of money, but so little research is done in preventing the disease let alone trying to pinpoint the causes.

So if you are suffering from cancer: please speak out: use this site as your platform to speak out and reach others who are going the same road.

Pavarotti pancreatic cancer

2007-09-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Pavarotti cancer

2007-08-21T01:15:00.000-07:00

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.