Research, Researchers, Results! Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic CancerHi Readers! Please find a short description on pancreatic cancer with its origin and incidence details.

Also brief information on pancreatic cancer research can be found.

Origin! Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumor within the pancreatic gland.

When cells in the pancreas grow abnormally and spread to form cancerous cells or tumors, pancreatic cancer originates.

Gosh So Dangerous! This is considered as one of the most difficult cancers to treat as it is asymptomatic, undetectable by a physical exam and progresses quickly.

Note that most patients die within 6 months of diagnosis. These factors also limit the amount of data available for research, hindering significant advances in the understanding of the disease.

You must know this! In the United States pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death and worldwide the fifth leading cause of cancer death.

Cancer of the pancreas accounts for only about 2% of the cancers diagnosed each year. However, making it a leading cause of cancer death the five-year survival rate is less than 5%.

Incidence! In the United States the pancreatic cancer incidence is 50-90% higher in African Americans than in any other racial group.

It is more common among African Americans who also have the poorest prognosis of any racial group because they often are diagnosed with advanced disease. Thus it is considered as an inoperable cancer. African Americans also are less likely to receive surgery than any other racial group in the United States.

Pancreatic cancer is a very aggressive cancer with extremely low survival rates. It gives a limited ability to identify people at high risk for this disease. Making the diagnosis of the disease before it has invaded the rest of the body impossible.

Good News! This discovery may enhance the likelihood of survival enhancing a significant finding that may permit identification of individuals at risk so that they can be monitored regularly, to detect the cancer when it can be treated while still in an early stage.

Research, Researchers, Results! Scientists and researchers were able to gather sufficient genetic data for this study through the cooperation of a large Northwestern family known in scientific communities as “Family X.”

The largest pancreatic cancer family ever studied is Family X. Twenty affected family members were studied; nine have died of the disease, including five out of six brothers.

Study Confirmed! The fundamental hypothesis is that cancer of the pancreas is caused by the accumulation of genetic changes (called mutations) in cancer-causing genes and that an improved understanding of these genetic mutations will lead to new techniques to diagnose and treat this cancer as studied in the basic science research laboratories at Johns Hopkins.

Let’s see what pancreatic research includes:

  • basic science studies of how the pancreas forms embryologically
  • the development of new screening tests for early pancreatic cancer
  • cutting-edge genetic analyses of surgically resected cancers
  • therapy to treat pancreatic cancer. [Pancreatic Cancer Treatment]
  • studies of why pancreatic cancer runs in some families
  • studies of advanced/metastatic pancreatic cancer
  • research into the precursor lesions that give rise to invasive pancreatic cancer
  • the development and testing of new therapies including a novel vaccine-based

Now that’s pretty good information about pancreatic cancer isn’t it. Happy Reading! Take Care!