Pancreatic Cancer

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Pancreatic Cancer

The pancreas is a large, elongated gland behind the stomach, which plays a key role in digestion. Pancreatic cancer has been know as a "silent" disease, because it usually does not cause symptoms early on. The cancer may grow for sometime before it causes pressure in the abdomen, or pain and other problems. Pancreatic cancer is hard to find early. In many cases the cancer has spread outside the pancreas by the time it is found. At this point in time, only surgical biopsies can diagnosis this cancer because of the silent course of the disease. Sometime, the cancer cannot be completely removed. But to relieve such symptoms the surgeon creates a by pass around the blockage. Before this type of surgery is done the patient has to go through radiation and biological therapy to help stop it from growing or dividing and to help fight it. The gene of Pancreatic cancer is DPC4, which maps to chromosome 18.
I think that if they were able to identify this type of cancer earlier on in a person it would help out a lot of people. My grandfather had pancreatic cancer and right after he had surgery he was in a state of depression because of all the therapy and treatment he had to go through. Depression is a number symptom when people get cancerous surgery or find out that they are diagnosed with cancer. I think that it would help a lot of people out if they knew early on in their life. Not only for this type of cancer, but for all types....