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Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

directorsblog.nih.gov

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Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#11

Post by rscho »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #3
jessriedel wrote: post #2

A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear. The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most comm…

Every time I read about something like this, I wonder how people can make it through medical school without dying of anxiety. So many terminal illnesses that could already be killing you with no early warning signs... how can they sleep!?

Medical school makes you dead inside, which is very practical to work long hours and not worrying about dying on the outside :)

As a European working in the US medical system, my general impression is that US people fear death much more than in Europe, where people bother much more about suffering than dying in itself. I don't really understand why, but americans seem in my experience far more willing to undergo invasive procedures to live longer, even if it means bad quality life.

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#12

Post by louithethrid »

fixermark wrote: post #7
gthtjtkt wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I read about something like this, I wonder how people can make it through medical school without dying of anxiety. So many terminal illnesses that could already be killing you with no early warning signs... how can they sleep!?

It helps to acknowledge the fact that you are constantly dying from something. Everyone's time is finite, and there's very little benefit in chasing the tail of the "If only I'd known about X" dragon, because there will always eventually be an X you don't know about that gets you. (... at least until we perfect the longevity treatments ;) ).

Newsflash: First Immortal killed by car during victory dance on the street

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#13

Post by killjoywashere »

rscho wrote: post #11
gthtjtkt wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I read about something like this, I wonder how people can make it through medical school without dying of anxiety. So many terminal illnesses that could already be killing you with no early warning signs... how can they sleep!?

Medical school makes you dead inside, which is very practical to work long hours and not worrying about dying on the outside :) As a European working in the US medical system, my general impression is that US people fear death much more than in Europe, where people bother much more about suffering than dying in itself. I don't really understand why, but americans seem in my experience far more willing to undergo inva…

We tend to interpret suffering as virtue. Even PG advises faced with a choice, doing what sucks more is probably the right answer.

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#14

Post by lazerpants »

rosser wrote: post #4
jessriedel wrote: post #2

A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear. The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most comm…

What ever happened to the point-of-care test developed by a teenager (Jack Andraka) using CNTs to isolate and test for mesothelin, a potential biomarker for pancreatic cancer? EDIT: Looks like it's tied up in various patent and testing limbos, the former of which seem somewhat self-imposed. There's also some doubt about the specificity of mesothelin to pancreatic cancer.

The most promising early warning tests I've seen in the past few years look at degraded DNA fragments floating in the blood that have been shed by cancers. This will probably be the winning technology for all cancer early diagnoses, though genetic biomarkers will probably fail to catch all cancers.

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#15

Post by melling »

creepydata wrote: post #8
jessriedel wrote: post #2

A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear. The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most comm…

The most important thing you can do today to prevent pancreatic cancer is.... believe it or not, don't smoke. Smoking causes somewhere around 30% or so cases of pancreatic cancers.

What about the other 70% chance?

We really need early detection. The list of famous people that I've heard of who died from pancrer cancer keeps growing:

Randy Pausch - Last Lecture

Steve Jobs

Patrick Swayze

Sally Ride - astronaut

Piers Sellers - astronaut

Hans Rosling

Richard Hatch

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#16

Post by arkh »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #3
jessriedel wrote: post #2

A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear. The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most comm…

Every time I read about something like this, I wonder how people can make it through medical school without dying of anxiety. So many terminal illnesses that could already be killing you with no early warning signs... how can they sleep!?

You just have to realize that you're on your way to dying the moment your parents made you. At the moment medicine can only slow the process so don't stress too much.

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#18

Post by melling »

jessriedel wrote: post #2

A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear. The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most comm…

What you are saying doesn't make sense: "the disease spreads quickly once detected ".

From the article, it appears that the disease is active in your body a long time before it's detected. It's just at a very late stage before it's detected.

"Because it can take 20 years or more for precancerous cells to develop into full-blown pancreatic cancer"

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#19

Post by jessriedel »

melling wrote: post #18
jessriedel wrote: post #2

A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear. The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most comm…

What you are saying doesn't make sense: "the disease spreads quickly once detected ". From the article, it appears that the disease is active in your body a long time before it's detected. It's just at a very late stage before it's detected. "Because it can take 20 years or more for precancerous cells to develop into full-blown pancreatic cancer"

"The disease is spreading quickly by the time it's detected" would be more clear, but my statement is technically correct as written.

Re: Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective

#20

Post by knodi123 »

melling wrote: post #15
creepydata wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important thing you can do today to prevent pancreatic cancer is.... believe it or not, don't smoke. Smoking causes somewhere around 30% or so cases of pancreatic cancers.

What about the other 70% chance? We really need early detection. The list of famous people that I've heard of who died from pancrer cancer keeps growing: Randy Pausch - Last Lecture Steve Jobs Patrick Swayze Sally Ride - astronaut Piers Sellers - astronaut Hans Rosling Richard Hatch

Although to be fair, if it weren't for his pancreatic cancer, Randy Pausch wouldn't really be famous.
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