Pancreatic Cancer Surgery – Introduction

Pancreatic surgery in India is considered to be of global standards and that is why more and more medical travellers are choosing India for their pancreas cancer treatment. Pancreas is one of our vital body organs located in the abdominal area. It plays a crucial role in converting the food that we eat into fuel for our body’s cells by releasing enzymes. It has two major functions -an endocrine function which regulates blood sugar; and an exocrine function which helps in digestion.

Pancreatic cancer starts in the tissues of your pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer that affects the pancreas begins in the cells of pancreas that line the ducts. These ducts carry digestive enzymes out of your pancreas.

Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer

This cancer usually doesn’t cause major symptoms until it has spread to other organs. However, you should be watchful of below symptoms –

• Appetite Loss and excessive weight loss
• Jaundice (skin and eyes get yellowish)
• Pain in the abdomen that radiates towards the back as well
• Having itchy skin
• Change in urine and stool colour
• Feeling of weakness and fatigue all the time
• Having blood clots, etc.

See your doctor if you are facing the above issues so that he may screen you for any abnormalities or pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

Diagnosis of pancreatic cancer typically happens when a patient comes to the doctor after experiencing symptoms for weeks or even months. Usually, it goes undetected till it has reached its advanced stage.

Following tools will be used by your doctor to find out the cause of your symptoms and confirm if you have pancreatic cancer –

• Physical Examination: After taking medical history, your doctor will examine your abdominal area in order to feel any mass in the abdomen and will also try to notice swollen lymph nodes in the neck area and jaundiced skin.
• Blood Investigation: He would also get some blood tests done to figure out evidence of bile flow getting blocked or other similar abnormalities.
• CT Scan/MRI: These scans create images that help in studying the affected area. It may be done with or without the use of contrast.
• Ultrasound of Abdomen: Here, your best doctor for pancreatic cancer in India takes help of an ultrasound probe that uses sound waves for producing images of the pancreas. These images appear on a computer monitor and thus help in studying the affected area.
• PET CT: During PET scan, radioactive glucose will be injected into your veins. It gets absorbed by cancerous cells of your pancreas and thus helps in determining the degree to which your pancreatic cancer has spread.

Pancreatic Cancer Treatment in India

1. Surgery for Pancreatic Cancer
Surgery can be planned by your surgeon as a possibly curative measure if the cancer is located within the pancreas and has not yet spread to other organs. For surgical patients, the type of surgery performed for removing pancreatic cancer is based upon the stage and location of tumor.

Besides Minimally Invasive Pancreatic Surgery, your surgeon may suggest you undergo Whipple Procedure for Pancreatic Cancer. Also known as pancreatic oduodenectomy, it is a complicated surgery of the upper abdominal area. It is named after the surgeon who founded this technique, Dr. Allen Whipple.

Whipple procedure consists of removal of the head of pancreas, portion of the adjacent small intestine (duodenum area), the gallbladder and the common bile duct. Following the removal of these organs, your surgeon would reconnect the remaining ones.

2. Embolization Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer
Embolization treatment is a different way of killing pancreatic tumors, instead of removing with surgery. It is comparatively used rarely for pancreatic cancers but can at times be used for treating pancreatic cancer which has spread to other organs, particularly the liver. It doesn’t cure cancer, rather helps in preventing or lessening the pain and symptoms.

3. Radiation Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer
Radiation therapy is usually given post-surgery in order to lessen the chance of pancreatic cancer recurrence. This therapy is usually given along with chemotherapy, that is together referred as chemoradiotherapy or chemoradiation.

RT is sometimes done to help in getting relief from symptoms like pain in patients with advanced stage pancreatic cancer in patients who aren’t fit enough for other treatment modules like surgical intervention.

4. Chemotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer
In this therapy, your oncologist will inject an anti-cancer drug into your vein or will advise you to take the drug orally. These drugs act by entering into your bloodstream and are able to reach almost all areas of your body, making this treatment highly useful for your pancreatic cancer, whether or not it has spread to other organs.

5. Targeted Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer
This new-age therapy makes use of specific drugs that precisely target the genetic changes in pancreatic cancer cells. These targeted drugs work in a different manner than chemo drugs we spoke about in the above point.

Unlike the traditional chemotherapy, drugs used in target therapy only destroy the cancerous cells and leave the healthy normal cells unaffected. Targeted therapy is often referred as precision medicine or personalized therapy.

6. Immunotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer
Your treating doctor may use Immunotherapy treatment for stimulating your own immune system in order to recognize and kill cancerous cells of pancreas more effectively. The best part of our immune system is its ability to hold itself from attacking our body’s normal cells. Thus, Immunotherapy can help boost or change how your immune system works, so that it can find and attack cancer cells of the pancreas.

7. Pain Control for Pancreatic Cancer
Pain arising out of pancreatic cancer may become a major problem and disturb your daily life routine. Cancers like this are known to attack and press on nerves surrounding the pancreas, and this causes severe pain in the abdominal area or sometimes even backside.

Do remember that the earlier your pancreatic cancer gets diagnosed, the sooner you will be able to get treated and cured from it.

Pancreatic Cancer Surgery in India

Every year, thousands of people from all over the world come to India for surgery to remove their pancreatic cancer.

There are many reasons why people choose to have their pancreatic cancer surgery in India. The cost of pancreatic cancer surgery in India is a fraction of what it would cost in developed countries like the United States or United Kingdom. But more importantly, the success rate for pancreatic cancer surgery in India is extremely high.

The best surgeons in India for pancreatic cancer surgery have performed countless surgeries and have perfected their techniques. They are able to provide their patients with the best possible care and treatment. As a result, patients who undergo pancreatic cancer surgery in India have a much higher chance of surviving than those who have their surgery in developed countries.

Do remember that the earlier your pancreatic cancer gets diagnosed, the sooner you will be able to get treated and cured from it.