Pancreatic cancer begins in the tissues of your pancreas. Pancreas is an organ in your abdomen that lies behind the lower part of your stomach. Pancreas releases enzymes that aid digestion and produces hormones that help manage your blood sugar called Insulin.
Several types of growths can occur in the pancreas, including cancerous and noncancerous tumors. The most common type of cancer that forms in the pancreas begins in the cells that line the ducts that carry digestive enzymes out of the pancreas called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Pancreatic cancer is infrequently detected at its early stages when it’s most curable. This is because it often doesn’t cause symptoms until after it has spread to other organs.
Pancreatic cancer treatment options are chosen based on the extent of the cancer. Options may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of these. We will see in the end about how homeopathy can help into pancreatic cancer.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer often don’t occur until the disease is advanced. You may see these symptoms commonly. Symptoms include:
- Abdominal pain that radiates to your back
- Loss of appetite or unintended weight loss
- Yellowing of your skin and whites of your eyes (jaundice)
- Light-colored stools
- Dark-colored urine
- Itchy skin
- New diagnosis of diabetes or existing diabetes that’s becoming more difficult to control
- Blood clots
- Fatigue
Causes: It’s not clear what causes pancreatic cancer. In research it identified some factors that may increase the risk of this type of cancer, including smoking and having certain inherited gene mutations.
Understand Pancreas function in body: Your pancreas is about 6 inches approx. 15 centimeters long and looks like a pear lying on its side. It releases hormones, including insulin, to help in the process of control sugar in the foods you eat. Also, produces digestive juices to help your body to digest food and absorb nutrients.
How Pancreatic cancer forms: Pancreatic cancer occurs when cells in your pancreas develop changes, mutations in their DNA. The cell receives instruction from its DNA. These mutations make the cells to grow uncontrollably and to continue living after normal cells would die. These cells can form a tumor. If left untreated, the pancreatic cancer cells can spread to nearby organs and blood vessel and other part of the body.
A cell’s DNA contains the instructions that tell a cell what to do. These mutations tell the cells to grow uncontrollably and to continue living after normal cells would die. These accumulating cells can form a tumor. When left untreated, the pancreatic cancer cells can spread to nearby organs and blood vessels and to distant parts of the body.
Most pancreatic cancer begins in the cells that line the ducts of the pancreas. This type of cancer is called pancreatic adenocarcinoma or pancreatic exocrine cancer. Less frequently, cancer can form in the hormone-producing cell or the neuroendocrine cells of the pancreas. These types of cancer are called pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor’s, islet cell tumors or pancreatic endocrine cancer.
Risk Factors
- Factors that may increase your risk of pancreatic cancer include:
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Chronical inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis)
- Family history of genetic syndromes that can increase cancer risk, including a BRCA2 gene mutation, Lynch syndrome and familial atypical mole-malignant melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome.
- Family history of pancreatic cancer
- Obesity
- Older age, as most people are diagnosed after age 65
A large study demonstrated that the combination of smoking, long-standing diabetes and a poor diet increases the risk of pancreatic cancer beyond the risk of any one of these factors alone.
As pancreatic cancer progresses, it can cause complications such as:
- Weight loss: A number of factors may cause weight loss in people with pancreatic cancer. Weight loss might happen as the cancer consumes the body’s energy. Nausea and vomiting caused by cancer treatments or a tumor pressing on your stomach may make it difficult to eat. Or your body may have difficulty in processing nutrients from food because your pancreas isn’t making enough digestive juices.
- Jaundice: Pancreatic cancer that blocks the liver’s bile duct can cause jaundice. Signs include yellow skin and eyes, dark-colored urine, and pale-colored stools. Jaundice usually occurs without abdominal pain.
Your doctor may recommend that a plastic or metal tube (stent) be placed inside the bile duct to hold it open. This is done with the help of a procedure called ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography). During ERCP an endoscope is passed down your throat, through your stomach and into the upper part of your small intestine. A dye is then injected into the pancreatic and bile ducts through a small hollow tube (catheter) that’s passed through the endoscope. Finally, images are taken of the ducts.
- Pain: a growing size of tumor may press on nerves in your abdomen which can cause severe pain. Pain medications can help you feel more comfortable. Treatment, such as radiation and chemotherapy, might help slow tumor growth and provide some pain relief.
In severe cases, your doctor might recommend a procedure to inject alcohol into the nerves that control pain in your abdomen celiac plexus block. This procedure stops the nerves from sending pain signals to your brain.
- Bowel obstruction: pancreatic cancer that grows into or presses on the first part of the small intestine duodenum can block the flow of digested food from your stomach into your intestines.
Your doctor may recommend that a tube (stent) be placed in your small intestine to hold it open. In some situations, it might help to have surgery to place a temporary feeding tube or to attach your stomach to a lower point in your intestines that isn’t blocked by cancer.
Prevention
You may reduce your risk of pancreatic cancer if you:
Stop smoking: If you smoke, try to stop. Talk to your doctor about strategies to help you to stop, including support groups, medications and nicotine replacement therapy. If you don’t smoke, don’t start.
Maintain a healthy weight: If you are at a healthy weight, work to maintain it. If you need to lose weight, aim for a slow, steady weight loss – 1 to 2 pounds a week. Combine daily exercise with a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains with smaller portions to help you lose weight. Control the portion of food in your diet.
Choose a healthy diet: A diet full of colorful fruits and vegetables and whole grains may help reduce your risk of cancer.
Understand about homeopathy in pancreatic cancer:
Homeopathy can go along with your chemotherapy and radiation. In chemo and radiation immunity gets completely reduced as healthier body cells also get damaged along with cancerous cell. So, patient having multiple symptoms because of low immunity. With the help of homeopathy, the small multiple symptoms of cancer and side effects of chemo and radiation can be controlled. Also, it will help to reduce the dependency on chemical drugs for minor day to day complaints in the chemotherapy treatment.
Homeopathy helps to increase immunity and maintaining the emotional balance in cancerous cases. Patient can feel the positive changes during the treatment.
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