Survival Rate of Pancreas Cancer
All types of cancer are dangerous and can lead to death if not properly treated. However, pancreatic cancer is a type of cancer, which is the deadliest of them all. Pancreatic cancer, like other cancers is formed due to uncontrollable cell growth in the pancreas. These cells then continue to rapidly divide and then form lumps known as tumors, the tumors then interfere with the main function of the pancreas.
Pancreatic cancer survival rate is very low, that’s why pancreatic cancer is the most feared among other types of cancer. The survival rate refers to the percentage of people who have survived this condition, after they have been diagnosed with it.
Steve Jobs, Patrick Swayze, Joan Crawford, Margaret Mead and Luciano Pavarotti are among the people who died from a type of pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer survival rate largely depends on how early the person has been diagnosed but according to research this type of cancer is hardly ever discovered in the early stages, hence the survival rate is very low. Research states that if 38,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, then only 4000 people will have a chance of surviving through it.
Due to this low pancreatic cancer survival rate, it is responsible for about 6 percent of all cancer related deaths. The pancreatic cancer survival rate is low because the tumor, which form inside the pancreas, tend to spread very fast into lymph nodes. Larger tumors often result in an even lower survival rate. This further complicates the situation, as then no surgical treatment can be given to the patient. Thus, the patient must rely on chemotherapy and radiation to cure the cancer or suppress the symptoms; the chances of these therapies curing the cancer are not high.
There are many factors that can affect the pancreatic cancer survival rate, some of them are; what sort of treatment the patient can get, stage of the cancer, the overall health of the patient and whether the cancer has reoccurred or has been diagnosed for the first time. Pancreatic cancer survival rate has continues to remain low, even with all the advancement in medical care. However, the medical records state that earlier the pancreatic cancer survival rate was even lower and now with the several treatment options it has improved, but compared to other cancers it continues to be on a low end.
Several cancer institutes are aiming to increase the pancreatic cancer survival rate with the passage of time. The studies that predict or establish the pancreatic cancer survival rate are based on a group of people, and therefore the rate can range. This is because everybody tends to react in a different way to cancer and its treatment
