Why is pancreatic cancer so bad from the others?!


Question: My dear, young husband (age 50) died of PanCan just 2 years ago. Everyone who has answered is spot on, but here's additional info, based on my sad experience and my extensive internet research, grasping at anything that would help.

As you probably know, the pancreas is buried way deep in the middle, behind the stomach, next to the liver, sort of. It is extremely 'inaccesable'. With breast cancer (which I got by the way 6 months after HE died) a mamogram can detect very early cancer (as with mine) but the location of pancreas has made any test unavailible, or undiscovered. The Dr. told me by the time someone shows symptoms, the disease is very progressed. The major symptom is intense stomach ache. The pain doubled him over and sent him to bed. The pain wrapped itself around, radiating from the stomach all the way around his sides to his spine. This is reallly common because of the nerve that runs from the pancreas to the spine. They ran tests and told him it was probably gallstones (similar symptom) THEN it was probably pancretitis (inflamation of the pancreas, non life threatening) Another symptom at this point (and till death unfortunately) is diareah.
He started with symptoms Memorial day week, and wasnt given diagnosis until late June, after a cat scan, or mri, what ever they do.. and I had gone away for a few days with the children for a visit, husband was well enough with oxycodone to keep workiing, we thought he'd be fine. when I came back he was yellow, even in his eyes. The Dr's appt. was the next day, and the doc's face well, he went to an ashen color and looked reallly really serious and told us this was jauncice, probably from a tumor wrapping itself around the bile duct. An emergency endoscopy the next day confirmed pancreatic cancer. (they put in a stent to hold open that bile duct) The dr. told ME (because the anestesia makes the patient so "la la" they don't remember anything. ) this is how it always ends up being diagnosed, and he had from between 5 years and 2 weeks to live. It depends on if they can do an 8 hour surgery called the 'whipple procedure' which reroutes all the "plumming" inside. (I'm the one who had to tell the love of my life all of this news the next day)..

When he had the operation, I knew there was trouble when the surgeon returned to the waiting room less than one hour into the surgery. With a resident. And was taken to a private room. Before cutting him all the way open, they do a 'laparoscopy' , a tiny lighted microscope inserted through a tiny inscision, to check things out. The first place pancan spreads is to the liver (like it was around the bile duct, that was a big sign) sure enough, there were"multiple tumors", and thus iinoperable (and a liver transplant does NOT work, it just gets infected again)

At this point the only option is chemotherapy. The Dr. said it adds some quality of life and some time. "Time for what?" I asked angrily "Time to take a cruise or a really nice vacation together". The chemo coctail does add time, no hair falls out, but your fingers and toes get really numb and you end up with no feeling from the knees down.(making driving really dangerous!) We took 3 great mini vacations, places he wanted our sons to experience before he died. We got them all in, New York to see a couple of broadway plays, Orlando to Universal studios, and 4 weeks before death to Hawaii, using all our frequent flier miles.
Through the whole time, it is extremely difficult to eat, food comes up or passes through, and they just don't get nutrition. Fat aggrivates this horribly (when I read Patric Swayze's wife was giving him a high fat diet I thought this was total B.S. or she's killing him faster. ) the only food my guy could keep down was eggs, with maybe 10 shreds of shredded cheese.
I learned from my research the average time of diagnosis to death on his mixture of chemo drugs (the best availible giving the most 'time') is 240 days. Sure enough, from the day the surgeon called with the pathology, early July, to date of death , it was 240 days. exactly. I was one of the lucky ones. The first grade teacher's husband was diagnosed with pan can and died ONE WEEK later. We had a chance to say goodbye at least. (and time to find out how he did the bills, where the keys to everything was, his personal passwords to everything, his dreams for our children what 10 home fix up projects I should tackle first, if I was him doing them)
A previous person said 'smoking' is a cause', well, maybe, but he had smoked for 10 years, and had not smoked for over 20 years. A study out of the University of Hawaii I heard about on the radio about a month after his death (2/22/06) said there was a 40% higher chance of pan can for people eating diets high in nitrates and nitrites. read your labels! all packaged meats, all deli sliced meats, ham, bologna, roast beef from deli, turkey from deli all have them. and hotdogs and sausages. (the one alternative is there are companies like Applegate farms, and others) who process these foods with no nitrates or nitrites, but you haave to eat then right away! Sorry to be so long winded, but I am, at this point, rather experienced and have expert information from multiple sources.
My husband lost over 80 lbs.


Answers: My dear, young husband (age 50) died of PanCan just 2 years ago. Everyone who has answered is spot on, but here's additional info, based on my sad experience and my extensive internet research, grasping at anything that would help.

As you probably know, the pancreas is buried way deep in the middle, behind the stomach, next to the liver, sort of. It is extremely 'inaccesable'. With breast cancer (which I got by the way 6 months after HE died) a mamogram can detect very early cancer (as with mine) but the location of pancreas has made any test unavailible, or undiscovered. The Dr. told me by the time someone shows symptoms, the disease is very progressed. The major symptom is intense stomach ache. The pain doubled him over and sent him to bed. The pain wrapped itself around, radiating from the stomach all the way around his sides to his spine. This is reallly common because of the nerve that runs from the pancreas to the spine. They ran tests and told him it was probably gallstones (similar symptom) THEN it was probably pancretitis (inflamation of the pancreas, non life threatening) Another symptom at this point (and till death unfortunately) is diareah.
He started with symptoms Memorial day week, and wasnt given diagnosis until late June, after a cat scan, or mri, what ever they do.. and I had gone away for a few days with the children for a visit, husband was well enough with oxycodone to keep workiing, we thought he'd be fine. when I came back he was yellow, even in his eyes. The Dr's appt. was the next day, and the doc's face well, he went to an ashen color and looked reallly really serious and told us this was jauncice, probably from a tumor wrapping itself around the bile duct. An emergency endoscopy the next day confirmed pancreatic cancer. (they put in a stent to hold open that bile duct) The dr. told ME (because the anestesia makes the patient so "la la" they don't remember anything. ) this is how it always ends up being diagnosed, and he had from between 5 years and 2 weeks to live. It depends on if they can do an 8 hour surgery called the 'whipple procedure' which reroutes all the "plumming" inside. (I'm the one who had to tell the love of my life all of this news the next day)..

When he had the operation, I knew there was trouble when the surgeon returned to the waiting room less than one hour into the surgery. With a resident. And was taken to a private room. Before cutting him all the way open, they do a 'laparoscopy' , a tiny lighted microscope inserted through a tiny inscision, to check things out. The first place pancan spreads is to the liver (like it was around the bile duct, that was a big sign) sure enough, there were"multiple tumors", and thus iinoperable (and a liver transplant does NOT work, it just gets infected again)

At this point the only option is chemotherapy. The Dr. said it adds some quality of life and some time. "Time for what?" I asked angrily "Time to take a cruise or a really nice vacation together". The chemo coctail does add time, no hair falls out, but your fingers and toes get really numb and you end up with no feeling from the knees down.(making driving really dangerous!) We took 3 great mini vacations, places he wanted our sons to experience before he died. We got them all in, New York to see a couple of broadway plays, Orlando to Universal studios, and 4 weeks before death to Hawaii, using all our frequent flier miles.
Through the whole time, it is extremely difficult to eat, food comes up or passes through, and they just don't get nutrition. Fat aggrivates this horribly (when I read Patric Swayze's wife was giving him a high fat diet I thought this was total B.S. or she's killing him faster. ) the only food my guy could keep down was eggs, with maybe 10 shreds of shredded cheese.
I learned from my research the average time of diagnosis to death on his mixture of chemo drugs (the best availible giving the most 'time') is 240 days. Sure enough, from the day the surgeon called with the pathology, early July, to date of death , it was 240 days. exactly. I was one of the lucky ones. The first grade teacher's husband was diagnosed with pan can and died ONE WEEK later. We had a chance to say goodbye at least. (and time to find out how he did the bills, where the keys to everything was, his personal passwords to everything, his dreams for our children what 10 home fix up projects I should tackle first, if I was him doing them)
A previous person said 'smoking' is a cause', well, maybe, but he had smoked for 10 years, and had not smoked for over 20 years. A study out of the University of Hawaii I heard about on the radio about a month after his death (2/22/06) said there was a 40% higher chance of pan can for people eating diets high in nitrates and nitrites. read your labels! all packaged meats, all deli sliced meats, ham, bologna, roast beef from deli, turkey from deli all have them. and hotdogs and sausages. (the one alternative is there are companies like Applegate farms, and others) who process these foods with no nitrates or nitrites, but you haave to eat then right away! Sorry to be so long winded, but I am, at this point, rather experienced and have expert information from multiple sources.
My husband lost over 80 lbs.

because by the time it is detected and the symptoms have shown its already well advanced

its the hardest to treat, Usually when u have pancreatic cancer, doctors need to cut of parts of a lot of internal organs to surrvie (Rid the cancer) Chemo and radiocative treaments do not help kill the cancer, Internal Organs need to be operated on

One of the top five fatal cancers... 90% of people that have pancreatic cancer don't live past 12 months....

Oh. Pancreatic cancer is so bad because its simptoms occurs when it is late. It cannot be diagnosed before it happens. It causes jaundic and thereafter spoils the whole system of our digestive system and happens in old age when it is difficult to operate. So sad. No one knows how it happens. But continuous medication, smoking may be main causes.

Symptoms don't show up until the cancer is advanced. You can't live without the pancreas so it can't be removed Very often by the time it's found it's spread to other organs.

It doesn't matter when it's detected, there is no cure or real treatment for pancreatic cancer! If you get it, unfortunately, it's over! Other types can be eradicated by surgery and chemotherapy! But not this one!

pancreatic cancer is bad from others cuz pancreas hv number of rules to play as organ like secretion of bile juice important for digestion of food and prevents small intestine from acidity of stomch,secretion of insulin and glucogan,,important for regulation of suger level...any disease of pancreas also effcts many other body functions..and its diificult to diagnose





The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories