Depending on the extent of the tumour at the time of diagnosis, the prognosis is generally regarded as poor; partly because the pancreas is an organ that is very deep inside the body, partly because the cancer usually causes no symptoms early on , leading to metastatic disease at time of diagnosis.
Median survival from diagnosis is around 3 to 6 months; 5-year survival is much less than 5%
With 32,180 new diagnoses in the United States every year, and 31,800 deaths, mortality approaches 99%, giving pancreatic cancer the #1 fatality rate of all cancers and the #4 cancer killer in the United States amongst both men and women.
Statistics from the Asia-Pacific region is scarce, but the fact remains: Pancreatic cancer is hard to diagnose, usually by the time it is diagnosed it is untreatable, and the mortality rate is unacceptably high.
Signs and Symptoms Generally, the most common symptoms of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas include loss-of-appetite, weight loss, abdominal discomfort and nausea. As these are all fairly non-specific symptoms, there is often delay in getting to the final diagnosis.
Risk Factors include: Age, Smoking, Diet high in meat, genes (to a much lower degree), ethnicity
Awareness- November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
- Purple is the traditional color chosen to represent pancreatic cancer
- An estimated 52.7 million dollars was spent on pancreatic cancer research in 2004 of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) cancer research budget. This is just 1% of the NCI’s 4.824 billion dollar cancer research budget for 2004.
- Despite the especially lethal nature of pancreatic cancer, the research spending per pancreatic cancer patient is only $1145, the lowest of any leading cancer
