November is National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Within the United States cancer of the pancreas is the fourth leading cause of cancer death. This year approximately 32 thousand Americans will die from this disease. This disease is not only common among whites but blacks as well and very difficult to treat. For these reasons, pancreatic cancer has been labeled as “the challenge of the twenty-first century.”
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions has become the leading center for the treatment and study of pancreatic cancer.
There is a clear need to continue the research that has already been conducted on the cause of pancreatic cancer. The paradigm currently being examined in the basic science laboratories of John Hopkins in the accumulation of mutations in specific cancer-causing genes that can cause pancreatic cancer. Therefore, researchers are looking at genes at both the level of the chromosomes and at the DNA level.
Cancer of the pancreas is not resectable at the time of diagnosis. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are the main treatments offered to patients whose tumor cannot be removed surgically. Immunotherapy is also offered as a vaccine made of cancer cells themselves, and preliminary research suggests that this vaccine can be an effective and safe treatment for pancreatic cancer.
Resection, which is the removal of the pancreatic tumor by surgery, is currently the only chance for a cure for patients with cancer of the pancreas. Resection, commonly known as the “whipple” procedure, is very complex and only performed by surgeons who are specially trained to conduct this surgery effectively.
This article’s contents and more information about pancreatic cancer can be found at Johns Hopkins Pancreas Cancer Web research (type in search engine).