Brandon El
Oct. 29, 2010
One of the most deadly and serious cancers that can be contracted is pancreatic cancer. Studies show that less than five percent of people that are diagnosed with this specific type of cancer will not live past five years of the diagnosis. This in turns means the sooner an individual gets treated the longer the person has to live or possibly be cured. After a research study that was done by Dr. B. Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins Univ. found that pancreatic cancer can lay dormant in your body and steadily grow for over 10 years and go undetected. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), just last year pancreatic cancer has been identified in forty-two thousand people in the United States alone. Based solely on past accounts more than ninety percent of these people will be dead in less than five years. From Vogelstein's discovery these numbers can drop significantly. It takes somewhere approximately over eleven years prior to the foremost act tumor stage it needs another 7 years of growth and two more years until the person has been killed by the disease. This gives doctors nearly 2 decades to located and eradicate the cancer unfortunately pancreatic cancer is quite difficult to screen for. It's difficult to find tumors before metastasizing which at most gives the doctors seven years to work with but also the surgical procedure is very delicate and can easily go wrong due to the intricate steps that must be followed.
My reaction to this story is a new sense of hope. This diseases as stated has touched tens of thousands just in the US, possibly hundreds of thousands worldwide. With this new information many more lives can be saved being that it gives doctors a much wider window of opportunity to save and treat patients than before. This disease as stated kills 95% of its victims within 2 years of metastasizing, one of Hollywood's biggest superstars in Patrick Swayze died after his 20 month battle with it. This hit people hard because not only because of his incredible acting skills but because of so many positive reports that were coming in saying how much better he was getting then out of nowhere the story turns for the worst and suddenly you heard stories of him passing. This disease has no respect of person; evidently shown by taking this great actors life; and can affect anyone it wants to. This newly found information can be the eye opener to many individuals at risk to go get checked sooner and more frequently to prevent more cases like that form happening.
http://www.simplehealthguide.com/pancreatic-cancer-develops-gradually-can-be-spotted/
1 comment:
The problem, as I see it, is that Pancreatic Cancer goes undetected for so long because the symptoms are not easily noticable in the early stages, when it can be best be treated. The symptoms can also be confused with other medical problems, and not immediately thought of as pancreatic cancer. In my opinion, more people should be aware of it's symptoms. If there is awareness of the symptoms, it might improve survival rates. If pancreatic cancer runs in the family, and you are nearing the vulnerable age of of 50 and older (it occurs more often in people 50 and older), I would have no problem paying the $1,000+ for an annual CT scan. Symptom awareness and knowing your family history and risk factors, is the key, I believe.
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