Am I at risk for Pancreatic Cancer?

[jlehane]

I just found out.He died of Pancreatic CANCER. What's the story with pancreatic cancer? I'm clueless and don't drink alchy,so it never enters my mind....should it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hazard :unsure:

[Dr Steve]

I just found out.He died of Pancreatic CANCER. What's the story with pancreatic cancer? I'm clueless and don't drink alchy,so it never enters my mind....should it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hazard :unsure:

Pancreatic cancer can kiss my ass. The problem with it is that it comes on insidiously, so that the patient isn't aware of it until it's at least locally advanced in the majority of cases. There's no screening test (yet) but there is a blood test for it finally, called the CA 19-9 test which can be used to help in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and to follow after treatment.

No one knows what causes pancreatic cancer but there are risk factors for it:

1) Age (people over 60 are at higher risk)
2) Smoking (cut it out!)
3) Chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)
4) Male gender
5) Family History (3 times the risk if a first degree relative had it)
6) African Ancestry
7) Diabetes
8) High fat diet

Remember, the vast majority of people who have risk factors for pancreatic cancer don't get it.

The things above you can control are smoking, diabetes, and high fat diet. So take care of those and be vigilant.

your pal,



steve

[led37zep]

My friends dad died about a year or so ago from Pancreatic Cancer. As soon as they found it, the game was pretty much over.


Doc, any idea what the hold up is with a screening test for this thing?

[Dr Steve]

My friends dad died about a year or so ago from Pancreatic Cancer. As soon as they found it, the game was pretty much over.


Doc, any idea what the hold up is with a screening test for this thing?

Here's the problem with screening tests...to meet criteria for a great test for screening the whole population it must meet these criteria:

1) the test must be inexpensive
or at least the cost of testing EVERYONE at risk must be less than the cost of TREATING everyone you find

2) the condition you're testing for must be common
otherwise you'll have too many false positives

3) the condition you're testing for must be TREATABLE
otherwise what's the point in screening for it?

4) the test must be sensitive
i.e., you need to catch every case possible with the screening test (this induces more false positives, though)


There is no single test yet for pancreatic cancer that meets all of these criteria. If you think about it, how can you test for human tissue inside the human body? It's tough...you have to find one single defining element that makes the abnormal tissue recognizable from normal tissue and make it cheap and sensitive.

We're just embarking on this road in medicine; it took 100 years to get here. 100 years from now I hope we'll be able to screen and treat early all kinds of diseases that kill the hell out of us now.