Pancreatic Cancer - Causes, Symptoms, Health Insurance Coverage

The cancer of the pancreas usually begins in its tissues. Two types of tumours grow in the pancreas, one is cancerous, and the other is non-cancerous. Cancer in the pancreas mainly develops in the cells that line the ducts which carry digestive enzymes out of the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer is highly curable when diagnosed at an early stage. However, a person suffering from pancreatic cancer doesn’t show any symptoms in the beginning. One can see the symptoms when it is spread to other organs.  

The signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer may not be visible in the beginning, but it will show as the disease progresses: 

After a physical examination, if your doctor thinks that you are suffering from pancreatic cancer, he or she will ask to go through below mentioned tests: 

Imaging tests: In this test, the pictures of organs are taken which helps doctors in proper diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed with the help of techniques like computerized tomography scans, ultrasound, positron emission tomography (PET) scans, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Ultrasound: An Endoscopic ultrasound helps in getting the image of the pancreas. This device is put inside the mouth of the patient and it goes to the stomach, where it clicks the pictures of the pancreas. 

Biopsy: In this procedure, a small part of the tissue of the infected area is extracted as a sample and is sent to the laboratory for testing. 

Blood test: Your doctor may ask you to go through a blood test to see whether tumor makers (a type of protein) is present in the blood. This tumor maker is shed from the cancerous cells of the pancreas. Its presence in the blood means you are suffering from pancreatic cancer. 

Once pancreatic cancer is diagnosed, then your doctor will do a staging test. This test helps in diagnosing on which stage your pancreatic cancer is. This helps enormously in the treatment as your doctor will prescribe the treatment based on the stage of pancreatic cancer. 

As mentioned earlier, the treatment of pancreatic cancer depends on which stage it is and what is the location of cancer. Treatment also depends on the overall health of the patients and their preference. Most people want to remove cancerous cells. However, when it is not possible, the main aim then is to hinder the growth of cancerous cells.