The main reason why pancreatic cancer is so hard to detect is that it’s internal, at first painless, and not generally connected to anything that would lead to serious symptoms.
“The exception is if it happens to occur close to the bile duct, which leads to blockage and jaundice relatively early in the course of the disease,” explains Mark Faries, MD, surgical oncologist and director of the Donald L. Morton, MD, Melanoma Research Program and director of therapeutic immunology at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
“Treatment in a fortunate minority is a very large operation, and in those whose cancer is detected later, treatment is largely based on chemotherapy and is temporarily relieving at most,” Faries added.
15 thoughts on “7 Types of Cancer That Are Almost Impossible to Detect in Early Stages”
It seems to me that if animals can be tracked all around the world, as I recently read that a turtle was tracked for 1600 miles, that there should be a way to insert into the human body, without major operations, devices that can be easily read that have the ability to notify or alarm through some software program that there is something happening in the body that needs attention.
It is utterly ridiculous to read, especially at this juncture, that so many people are dying so needlessly because we do not have a way for early notification that something might be going wrong that is detected early enough that resolving the problem is a simpler matter.
It still feels like we are medically still in prehistoric times considering the time and money spent over the years to resolve these issues, that are common place in name, common place in death but far from miraculous in life…
I completely agree! Without early detection, we’re doomed. Doctors won’t recommend MRI, CT, etc., because they are expensive.
The miracle of life is only in the Hands of GOD ! And people’s lives are dependent on food, the amount of food, and what food do we eat? The answer is that we eat poisoned food !
My wife got breast cancer over 5 years ago and doctors advised her on chemotherapy.
After the first chemotherapy treatment, she was almost dead. I immediately stopped any further chemotherapy and found a treatment itself. For one year, I treated her with natural remedies myself. After that, she went to the hospital for tests and the doctor was surprised that the results showed that the cancer was not in her body.
How did you treat your wife’s cancer??
My sister has stages 4 breast cancer..
How did you treat your wife cancer?.
I had throat cancer in 2017 tests have all been good. But recently have had red like rash just above my Left ankle and swelling and now have the same like rash on the inside of both arms. Should I be worried?
Hi. My name is Michelle. My mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in
September 2014 and died from the disease in January 2016. I agree with you both about early detection. The only think I noticed was that my mom was very exhausted in September 2014 and though we were scheduled for an appt. in October 2014, I immediately called the Dr. office the next day and he immediately took us. He looked into her eyes and saw yellow. this was Friday
scheduled CT scan of stomach for Monday and by Monday she was totally yellow and got her
into ER and diagnosis was then unknown stage of pancreatic cancer. No symptoms at all and by time yellow in eyes detected too late. Since her passing, I have became a volunteer affiliate at
the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in Los Angeles for the last 4 years. One of our purposes is to
find testing for early signs of pancreatic cancer. As the article stated it is very detect because of its location in the body. If there is a possible symptom like constant every day pains in the stomach
area and the patient is diagnosed with a stage 1 or 2 diagnosis, there is a an extremely complicated operation called the Whipple operation that can stop the disease for some of the people who have the operation.
Michelle, I am very sorry to hear about your mom she is in obviously a much better place than you and I RSVP. The reason for my reply to you is this I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at a early stage 2 strictly by accident. I was not jaundice I have been working out in the gym minimum five days a week when in strictly to get my diabetes under control and I registered for a diabetes test study from an independent firm. They did my bloodwork and found my liver enzymes were off the scale, They thought it was a false positive so they retested again it was even further out of whack! To make a long story short it was discovered I had pancreatic cancer and a Whipple was performed by an extremely proficient doctor specializing in this procedure at UAB, Birmingham Alabama I have been eight years out From operation and chemo was administered at Mitchell Cancer research, Mobile Alabama. I do take an enzyme periodically to help with bowel movements and absorption of fats. I have noticed though that I have started to get physically active back in the gym and that my need for the enzyme creatin has been reduced considerably! Also a low carbohydrate diet has helped me out extremely. No I am not the 235 pound person I used to be but I am the 194 pound survivor. Yes there is some minor discomfort from the Whipple but it doesn’t compare with not being on earthAlso due to the type of pancreatic cancer I had my doctors have decided that my port should stay in if it doesn’t affect me in every day life.Good luck in the future thank you for volunteering your time.
What did you do to treat your mother’s cancer? I’m sure many people would be interested to know.
Sometimes I wonder, with all the money they claim to be spending on research, the results have not improved! Now with so many DRS. Spending only about 15minutes with each patient, otherwise you see a nurse practioner, exactly how good is health care!
I agree there are more patients with cancer. There is a very high ratio of cancer patients than there are physicians. The time spent by physician is getting to be non existing and currently seen by CRNP(no reflection intended). It is very frightening. When will the patients feel something is being done and eradicate this monster?
Everyone has their own mind to make their choice when given free-will to choose. Unfortunately humans make the wrong choices sometimes. Scientific advances not withstanding, Paul Warner (above comment). It is ashame that any of us, as humans with a choice, deny ourselves the benefits of medical, dental, and vision checkups. The insurance companies providing coverage (for the costs of checkups, treatments, procedures, etc.) often make the decisions for us as to what will be affordable. Some of us cannot keep our homes, feed our children, nor can we continue to work for earned income if we spend time and money getting treated for early-stage illness so… out of fear of diagnosis many will just not get the checkups.
There probably is a cure for cancer, but “big pharma”, who makes billions of dollars each year on their cancer meds, wouldn’t liike that, and they probably have some of the highest paid lobbyists in this country to help protect their profits.
When I think of how quickly a vaccine was researched & formulated I wonder why they can’t come up with a cure for cancer. I realize that one is a virus & the other a tumor. My point is that when there was a push to find a solution to this modern day plague that killed hundreds of thousands great minds found a solution. I just wish that the same urgency existed for a cure for cancer.
Very interesting topics to read and understanding our body am so glad that I get these emails to read and relate back to my friends and family thanks so much.yours truly RD