MILAN (ITALPRESS) – The pancreas is an elongated gland located deep in the abdomen, between the stomach and the spine. It is about 18-20 centimeters long and contributes to digestion by producing very important enzymes such as insulin and glucagon, which regulate blood sugar levels. In Italy alone, pancreatic cancer records around 14,000 new cases every year, the mortality rate has not changed significantly in recent years and that of the pancreas is the tumor with the shortest survival one year after diagnosis, 34 % for men and 36.4% for women, both at five years, 11% in men and 12% in women. There are different types of neoplasms, more or less serious, linked to this organ: they range from the so-called cystic neoplasms, generally benign, to ductal adenocarcinoma, the most aggressive form, which affects 12 people out of 100,000 inhabitants, generally between 60 and 70 years. These are some of the topics covered by Massimo Falconi, head of the Pancreas Surgery Unit and director of the Pancreas Translational & Clinical Research Center of the IRCCS San Raffaele in Milan, as well as full professor of surgery at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, interviewed by Marco Klinger, for Medicina Top, a TV format of the Italpress press agency.
“Pancreatic cancer grows with few symptoms and when we discover it clinically it is extremely aggressive from a biological point of view – he began – In an aging population in Western countries, pancreatic cancer is destined to be the second cause of cancer by 2030. death from cancer. There are important therapeutic implications, it requires aggressive therapies that are more difficult to apply on the older population.” On the growing numbers: “There is certainly a different attention and a different awareness, because the more culture there is, the more you diagnose diseases that you previously thought were marginal or rarer – explained the professor – Furthermore, it remains a habit and a Western lifestyle, which leads us to live longer, but naturally unhealthy lives. Pancreatic cancer has significantly different numbers compared to age – he recalled – At 65 it affects 12 people out of 100,000, at 80 it becomes 30 out of 100,000, age alone represents a multiplication factor of three”.
“The trend today, due to the aggressiveness of the disease and an often not early diagnosis, is that the surgeon intervenes after systemic chemotherapy – added Falconi who, as is known, also operated on Fedez for the same pathology some time ago – Rarely we intervene in the first instance, first there is the primary chemotherapy cycle, then if the technical conditions are there and the patient is defined as ‘fit for surgery’, then we think about surgery”.
Regarding drugs and prevention: “We are using outdated drugs, but we have discovered that if we manage to put together more drugs we can obtain greater effectiveness in controlling the disease. But by increasing the number of drugs, toxicity also increases, not all patients are eligible for multi-drug chemotherapy, therefore with a high profile – he reiterated – We thought that pancreatic cancer was linked to bad luck and bad habits of life, therefore obesity, cigarette smoking, alcohol, but today we have discovered that there is also a genetic trait inherited from parents which makes us more susceptible to the disease – said Falconi – If that genetic trait is recognised, we can think of policies of screening, therefore monitoring healthy subjects to possibly discover the disease in its initial state. Today we very rarely discover the disease at stage 1, but often already at state 2 or 3, or even at state 4 which is metastatic.”
Finally, on the symptoms of pancreatic cancer: “The most striking symptom is that localized to the head, or a yellow color of the skin, eyes and all body surfaces. Jaundice is a sign of warning and attention – he concluded – Or again, a persistent pain in the pit of the stomach, not better justified, interrupted sleep at night, the appearance of a sudden diabetes without obvious reasons or the worsening of a diabetes which was previously adequately controlled.”
– photo taken from Medicina Top video –
(ITALPRESS).
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