Pancreas Cancer
Pancreas
Cancer:
Cancer of the pancreas is a disease in which
cancer (malignant) cells are found in the tissues of
the pancreas. The pancreas is about 6 inches long and is shaped something
like a thin pear, wider
at one end and narrowing at the other. The pancreas lies behind the
stomach, inside a loop formed
by part of the small intestine. The broader right end of the pancreas is
called the head, the middle
section is called the body, and the narrow left end is the tail. The
pancreas has two basic jobs in
your body. It produces juices that help you break down (digest) your food,
and hormones (such as
insulin) that regulate how your body stores and uses food. The area of the
pancreas that
produces digestive juices is called the exocrine pancreas. Cancer of the
pancreas is hard to find
(diagnose) because the organ is hidden behind other organs. Organs around
the pancreas include
the stomach, small intestine, bile ducts (tubes through which bile, a
digestive juice made by the
liver, flows from the liver to the small intestine), gallbladder (the
small sac below the liver that
stores bile), the liver, and the spleen (the organ that stores red blood
cells and filters blood to
remove excess blood cells). The signs of pancreatic cancer are like many
other illnesses, and there
may be no signs in the first stages..
Treatment:
Surgery, which
currently offers the greatest potential for prolonged survival, is
generally only
performed if the malignancy has not spread beyond the pancreas. In cases
where tumors have
been deemed resectable (capable of being surgically removed) the standard
operation is the
Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy. This procedure involves partial removal
of the stomach,
complete removal of the gallbladder, a bile duct, head of the pancreas,
portions of the small
intestine, and regional lymph nodes. In some instances, the entire
pancreas must be removed.
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