Complaints and Therapy of Pancreatic cancer

Complaints not become effective until late on

As with many other types of cancer even when symptoms of pancreatic cancer at a later stage. Therefore, it is usually detected very late. Pancreatic cancers are on the rise. Today every third to fourth with cancer which is affected.

In most cases, in 75 percent of all cases, the head of the pancreas is affected.

Carcinomas in the pancreatic head cause the following symptoms:

• Nausea
• Loss of appetite
• Weight Loss
• Painless jaundice
  

Carcinoma of the pancreas body - Carcinoma of the pancreas in the body cause the following symptoms:

• Severe abdominal pain in the upper abdomen, radiating to the back. You become stronger after eating and lying down.

Aetiologies

Smokers are at greater risk
The causes are unclear. Favoring contribute off:

• Chronic pancreatitis
• Alcohol
• Nicotine
• Carcinogenic food components, peroxides, for example, during the heating of polyunsaturated fatty acids are formed, or nitrosamines, nitrates and nitrites, which are contained in cured and smoked.
  

Therapy

Operation only in the early stages

Only in the early stages of pancreatic cancer, with about 20 percent of all cases, removal of the pancreas possible. Thus, life expectancy is increased. Those affected will be the removal of the pancreas and diabetes need to inject insulin. In all other cases, only the recurrent tumor symptoms are treated. Affected and / or relatives should be informed early on about the possibilities of home care.


Intra-arterial chemotherapy and chemoembolization

One form of non-drug therapy, which is also used in liver cancer, is the Intra-arterial chemotherapy and chemoembolization.

These types of chemotherapy have the advantage of fewer side effects compared to intravenous or oral. If a cytostatic drug on the vein (intravenously) or in the form of tablets orally introduced into the body, it acts more systemic, it will affect the whole organism, because the drug enters the bloodstream. The risk of side effects, here is higher. If the chemotherapy drug injected directly into the tumor, however, reached only a small fraction of drug in the bloodstream. Therefore, the concentration in the cancerous tissue itself is high.

Systemic side effects are less

For this type of therapy, the cytotoxic Fluorodeoxyuridine (FUDR, Floxuridine) is preferably used. About 90 percent of this substance be chemically altered in the liver and thus inactivated. This process is called "first-pass effect or presystemic elimination", i.e a medicinal product may lose some of its effectiveness if it is metabolized to a large extent by the liver before it reaches the bloodstream. In the case of FUDR, which is directly administered in liver cancer, does this high "first pass effect" that the possible occurrence of systemic side effects is very low.

The flow rate of blood is reduced in the tumor

The intensity of the effect of locally administered cytostatic drugs can be further increased if the flow velocity of arterial blood in the tumor vessels is lowered. This provides for a longer residence time of the drug in diseased tissue, because it is not by the slowing of blood flow can be taken away so quickly. Combined to reduce the flow to be the cytostatic drug with fat droplets are injected into the tumor vessel. This process is called chemoembolization. ) A embolus (grch Embolos = wedge is a stopper, which is located in the bloodstream. This can for example a blood clot, or foreign objects like his in this case a fat droplets.

A cure is obtained with this process. It is used to relieve the symptoms and thus preserving the quality of life of those affected. In addition, the tumor can be reduced with this method so that the possibility of an operation and it can be safely removed.

Pain

In addition to a change in diet, the implementation of a pain therapy is recommended. Because of the severe pain are often used early on opiates.