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Understanding the Stages of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreas is considered to be one of the top ten new and most common sites of cancer cell inside the body today. The disease covers at least six percent of the total deaths that are related to cancer diseases. The prognosis of this disease is found to be low; especially that early detection is not done. The reason for the neglect of being diagnosed early by patients suffering from this cancer disease is the fact that, the symptoms and manifestations do only occur once the cancer cells have gone through multiplication and has spread all throughout neighboring organs from the pancreas. What you need to know about this certain cancer disease is the stages and the symptoms in each stage. This article will give you a better yet easy way of understanding the stages of pancreatic cancer, thus avoiding late detections and treatment.

The stages of pancreatic cancer and the extent of the disease during the diagnosis is very essential factor in selecting the treatment needed and predicting the status of the patient. Similarly with the other cancer diseases, the stages of pancreatic cancer are determined with the use of the standardized staging system called the TNM system.  This is where “T” stands for the tumor size, “N” for the spread to nearby lymph nodes and “M” which is indicative of the multiplication or metastasized to other tissues and organs of the body. Moreover, internal organs such as the liver, lungs and peritoneum are the most common sites for multiplication.

Furthermore, everyone can be affected with pancreatic cancer; especially that risk factors may include cigarette smoking either active or second hand, exposure to harmful chemicals and asbestos, chronic and increase alcohol intake, cancer disease in the family and existence of medical conditions like pancreatitis and diabetes mellitus.
Listed below are the different stages of pancreatic cancer from the less- damaged to the extremely affected.
a. Stage 0
- This is more commonly termed as cancer in situ. The tumor here is confined only on the top layers of the pancreatic duct and has not yet penetrated deeper tissues. In addition, the cancer cells here are not yet spread to the outside pancreas’ body.
b. Stage IA
- The tumor in the pancreas is less than two centimeters in size. However, it has not spread to tissues near the pancreas.
c. Stage IB
- The tumor is in the pancreas and is larger than two centimeters in size; yet, has not spread to nearby tissues.
d. Stage IIA
- The tumor is now growing outside the pancreas but not exactly on the large blood vessels inside the body. In addition, it has not yet spread to other tissues and lymph nodes.
e. Stage IIB
- The tumor can be either inside the pancreas or is growing outside the organ but not merely affecting the blood vessels and nerves. Moreover, it has already spread to lymph nodes but not on the distant organs.
f. Stage III
- The tumor is increasing outside the pancreas plus affecting the large blood vessels and/or nerves: yet has not spread to lymph nodes and other tissues.
g. Stage IV
- The cancer and tumor has already spread to the distant bodily organs.

The symptoms may vary on the stages of pancreatic cancer the patient is suffering from. Listed below are the most common manifested symptoms of pancreatic cancer:
- Abdominal pain on the upper part of the stomach and may radiate at the back part of the body
- Pain on the abdomen that worsens when lying or after eating
- Urine and color changes in regards to consistency and color
- Jaundice caused by blockage of tumor in the bile flow
- Diarrhea due to inability for production of insulin
- Other symptoms like fatigue, vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite and significant weight loss

Moreover, similarly with other types of cancer diseases, the treatment will depend on the stages of pancreatic cancer. The age and the health condition of the patient are also considered before any treatment modality is given. But then, the most common treatment for pancreatic cancer are radiation therapy and chemotherapy, which is done on all stages of pancreatic cancer to kill cancer cells and prevent the spread of the tumor to other sites. However, for tumors that are detected early and has not yet spread may be removed by surgery. Certain surgical procedures like Whipple and explore laparotomy for some stages of pancreatic cancer.

Furthermore, some cancer clinical trials have been conducted by expert doctors and researchers to make effective way of treating advanced and non-advanced stages of pancreatic cancer. But then again, if you are in doubt or if you notice your body to not be in its normal state, do not hesitate to visit a health professional and talk about it. As they always say, Prevention is better than Cure.

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