Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat using conventional Western Medicine. That is where an alternative treatment for pancreatic cancer comes in. Pancreatic cancer is hard to treat because it has very few symptoms before it spreads to other parts of the body. This is because pancreatic cancer is usually a very aggressive. By the time it is detected, it is often too late for conventional Western medicine to do anything other than to prolong life a few months.

To understand pancreatic cancer, first we have to understand what the pancreas does (most people don't have a clue). The pancreas makes enzymes that end up helping us digest our cooked food. We need this help because cooked food has no more live enzymes present. One of the enzymes the pancreas produces is called trypsin. This enzyme eats holes in the walls of cancer tumors so that white blood cells can enter the cancer tumor and destroy it, (by the way, we all have cancer cells; if our immune system is in good shape and we have trypsin available, our body's destroy the cancer) so if we're eating a lot of cooked foods, we have little or no enzyme protection against cancer tumors because we're using all of our trypsin to digest our food. If our immune system is also in bad shape, then we have no more defenses left!

Various treatments are used to treat cancer of the pancreas, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy alone and chemotherapy with a targeted treatment. Depending on the stage of the cancer, your doctor may combine some of these treatments. Some of these options are explained in this section.

TREATMENT and HOW DOES IT WORKS???

1. Surgery : Surgery to remove the tumor offers the best chance for long term control of all types of advanced pancreatic cancer. In general, a tumor can be removed with surgery if it has not spread (metastasized) beyond the pancreas and does not involve major blood vessels. About 15% or about 1 out of 7 of advanced pancreatic cancers can be surgically removed at the time of diagnosis. This can be done if the tumor is small and has not spread to other areas of your body. 
2. Radiation : Uses X-ray beams to shrink the tumor. Radiation may destroy cancer cells remaining after surgery. Radiation may be given alone or with chemotherapy or other treatments. The chemotherapy drugs most commonly used with radiation therapy are fluorouracil (5-FU) and gemcitabine. 
3. Chemotherapy : Drugs used to destroy or slow the growth of cancer cells. 
4. Targeted Therapy : Designed to affect only certain cancer cell activities. Helps slow the tumor growth and destroy cancer cells. 

When may this treatment be used??? 

1. Surgery : You should be in good overall health to have surgery. Surgery can be the first step in your treatment plan. It may be performed in patients with Stage I-III. 
2. Radiation : This may be done before surgery to make it easier to remove the tumor. Radiation can also be done after surgery. This treatment may be used in Stage II-III. However, it can also be used to shrink tumors in advanced pancreatic cancer (Stage IV) to ease pain.your verall health may not be good enough for you to have surgery. Or, the cancer may have spread to other areas in your body. If so, radiation treatment may be used instead of surgery. 
3. Chemoterpy : Chemotherapy may be used with radiation to help shrink the tumor before surgery. It may be used after surgery or radiation to destroy any cancer cells that may have been left behind. 
4. Targeted Therapy : Targeted therapies may be used in first-line treatment, in conjunction with chemotherapy.