Pancreatic cancer prognosis is about the probability of getting better and how long the patients are expected to survive. This prognosis also tells about the result of the disease and treatments.
At the early stage, the cancer usually causes no symptoms, these condition make Patients who diagnosed with pancreatic cancer commonly have a poor prognosis. The symptoms appear once the disease leading to locally advanced or metastasis.
Diabetes is a risk factor for the development of pancreatic cancer and it can be an early sign of the disease in the elderly.
Tumor size
Pancreatic Cancer Prognosis also base on tumor size. It relates to survival rates. The smaller the pancreatic tumor, the more likely it is to be treated by surgery. The patients with tumors greater than 4-5 cm look like to have been treated by surgery.
Treatments
Palliative therapy may be chosen for treatment with patients that have incurable or uncontrollable pancreatic cancer. Palliative therapy is treatment given to relieve the symptoms and reduce the suffering caused by cancer.
Palliative therapy aims to improve quality of life by controlling pain and other problems caused by this disease.
There are many new changes of therapy that are being studied, ranging from monoclonal antibodies to gene therapy. Some of these experimental therapies may not provide significant improvement and some of them may prove to be beneficial.
Survival rates
Base on the American Cancer Society data, only 4 percent of all diagnosed patients are still alive after 5 years and approximately 20 percent of all patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, at any stage, live for at least 1 year following the diagnosis.
Pancreatic cancer prognosis about patients life expectation and survival rates are linked to the stage at diagnosis.
