Understanding Pancreatic Cancer
- Pancreatic Cancer UK isn't sugarcoating anything with its newest video appeal created for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
- The new video campaign, entitled "Lost Voices: Help us break through the silence," features the voices of some of the world's most notable stars.
- One thing the announcement makes clear something SurvivorNet experts agree on is that early detection of pancreatic cancer saves lives.
The new video campaign, entitled "Lost Voices: Help us break through the silence," features the voices of some of the world's most notable stars who have passed. The goal is to raise money for more pancreatic cancer research.
Read More"What do they all have in common?" the public service announcement asks. "They're dead."
The public service announcement also recognizes Roger Lloyd-Pack, Aretha Franklin, John Hurt, Luciano Pavarotti, Sally Ride and even Steve Jobs. Each of them died from the same thing pancreatic cancer.
This isn’t the first time a campaign featuring the voice of someone deceased has been created. Legendary actor Yul Brynner, who died of lung cancer at age 65, appeared in an "eerie" anti-smoking commercial for the American Cancer Society three months after he lost his fight.
"Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke, whatever you do. Just don't smoke," Brynner says hoarsely on screen.
The Statistics
The public service announcement follows its chilling narration of those who have passed with some sobering statistics about this type of cancer, such as half of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer don’t survive past three months.
Related: Remembering Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Who Died of Pancreatic Cancer at Age 87
But one thing the announcement makes clear something SurvivorNet experts agree on is that early detection saves lives.
Dr. Anirban Maitra, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, tells SurvivorNet that "most people will die from this disease within a few months to a year or so from the diagnosis.” In fact, the American Cancer Society estimates that about 60,430 people will be diagnosed with this type of cancer in 2021, and about 48,220 people will die from it, which is to Dr. Maitra's point that early detection is critical.
Understanding Pancreatic Cancer
Since the pancreas is inside the abdomen, "it often doesn't have symptoms that would tell you that something is wrong with your pancreas … by the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain or diabetes, it's often very late in the stage of the disease,” Dr. Maitra says.
Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early is Crucial
"The reason for that is that most individuals, about 80 percent, will actually present with what we called advanced disease (or metastatic), which means that the cancer has either spread beyond the pancreas or into other organs like the liver, and so you cannot take it out with surgeries," he says.
Early detection then is vital, as it will give you the best chance possible of beating pancreatic cancer, Dr. Maitra says. If you're at high risk, and you suspect something might be wrong, there are tests that can be performed to see whether you might have pancreatic cancer. However, Pancreatic Cancer UK wants there to be a “simple test” available to detect this cancer; right now, there’s only genetic testing available, as up to 10% of pancreatic cancers are caused by inherited genetic syndromes.
Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet that this type of cancer is soon to be the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
Dr. Allyson Ocean explains why pancreatic cancer is so hard to treat.
"Mortality is rising because it's caught so late," she says, "and we don't have enough effective medications against the cancer."
The question in front of oncologists today is: "How can we detect this disease earlier in the process so we can have a better impact on the survival of our patients?" Dr. Maitra says.
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