Is pancreatic cancer treatable?
Although pancreatic cancer is a grim diagnosis, it is not incurable. Cancers in general are not completely curable because the main defect behind their development -genetic defects- is always present. The measure of curability, therefore, is not the complete disappearance of all cancerous genetic material but the absence of a visible tumor or detectable cancerous cells. Another important measure is the survival rate, which is the percentage of patients still alive after a certain amount of time following diagnosis. Regarding pancreatic cancer, the survival rate of patients is 20% for 5 years.
The only curative option for pancreatic cancer is surgery, which is usually only possible in cancers of the head, owing to the fact that they cause most symptoms mentioned above at an early stage, allowing for surgery to take place. Cancers of the tail, on the other hand, rarely present early on, delaying the diagnosis past the viability of surgery. The operation commonly done for pancreatic cancer is called Whipple’s operation, which involves the removal of the pancreatic head, the duodenum -the first part of the small intestines-, and the bile duct. Whipple is only done for cancers of the head, while body and tail cancers are usually treated by the complete removal of the pancreas (pancreatectomy).