Little chance of pancreatic cancer

Appel founder Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer

06/10/2011

For nearly seven years, Apple founder Steve Jobs suffered from pancreatic cancer (medical: pancreatic cancer). Patients with rare cancers have little chance of full recovery. The five-year chance of survival after initial diagnosis is less than six years for men and only eight percent for women. The low prognosis prospects are mainly due to the usually too late diagnosis. Because in the initial stage of pancreatic cancer is almost Complaints for those affected.

Hardly any chance of survival in pancreatic cancer
Steve Jobs could not achieve a cure despite his billion-dollar empire. This shows how serious this malignant tumor disease is. „Pancreatic cancer is the tumor with the worst prognosis“, says Jörg Kleeff, Deputy Director of the Surgical Clinic at the Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich opposite the magazine Focus. Fortunately, pancreatic cancer is a rare cancer worldwide in relation to other cancers. Around three percent of all cancers diagnosed in Germany are pancreatic tumors. Pancreatic cancer usually occurs in the part of the pancreas that is responsible for the production of enzymes. In the medical community, this region is also called exocrine part. Most patients are between 60 and 70 years old. But there are also younger people who suffer from the serious cancer. Here the disease usually occurs spontaneously. The chances of survival are very low despite complex therapeutic measures. Just five percent of those affected survive five years after diagnosis (five-year survival). In Germany, according to recent surveys, around 12,800 people suffer from pancreatic cancer each year. Most die after a good six months after diagnosis.

The Apple founder himself suffered from a very specific type of cancer. Jobs had a neuroendocrine tumor that affected the endocrine glands in the pancreatic tissue. The glandular cells in the organ are responsible, among other tasks, for the formation of glandular secretions. This form of pancreatic cancer is less aggressive and is progressing slowly. The mortality rate is slightly higher here than in the other species. After all, about 20 percent of treated patients still live five years later. Among them was Jobs, whose financial success brought him the best possible treatment.

Causes of pancreatic cancer still unclear
Despite numerous research, the exact cause of the genesis is still largely unknown. Recent scientific work indicates that the first cell mutations often occur 20 years before the actual onset of the disease. Therefore, according to British researchers, it is not surprising that the survival rate has hardly improved in the last 40 years. At the time of diagnosis, pancreatic cancer is extremely aggressive and treatment is then scarcely possible.

In addition to genetic dispositions, alcohol habit, long-term smoking, severe overweight, diabetes, cystic changes and chemical pollutants can strongly promote the development of cancer. As with the other cancers of the digestive organs is also here that constant irritation, such as a long-lasting pancreatitis increasingly leads to degeneration of the body's own cells. Genetic disposition is now considered by professionals to be the main cause.

In about 10 percent of cancer patients, if timely diagnosed with a medical intervention, the tumor can be eliminated by surgical removal. And even after surgery, the recurrence rate is not excluded. In most cases, however, the cancer is recognized too late because of the lack of symptoms in the initial stages. If the first symptoms appear, the cancer has usually metastasized and has jumped over adjacent organs. In numerous cases, so-called secondary tumors have already formed in the lungs, liver and bones at the time of diagnosis. At Steve Jobs, the liver had to be replaced with the help of transplantation medicine. That gave Jobs a few more years to live.

In order to extend the life expectancy of the patients somewhat, radiation and chemotherapies are used in the advanced stage. The primary goal of physicians in this cancer stage is to alleviate suffering and improve quality of life. The late Apple founder also underwent numerous cancer treatments. Despite his billions of assets, the cancerous disease could not be stopped.

Complaints show up only in the late stage of the disease
The classic symptoms such as jaundice, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, underweight, nausea and vomiting as well as a possible feeling of pressure in the upper abdomen occur only when hardly any treatment success can be achieved from a conventional medical perspective. However, the pain may indicate a variety of other diseases. The symptoms only appear when the pancreatic cancer has already jumped over to neighboring organs such as the stomach, intestine or stomach. These tumors are then responsible for the aforementioned complaints. The pancreatic cancer itself causes almost no noticeable symptoms for the person affected.

How can be prevented?
It is believed that there is a genetic link in the development of pancreatic cancer. This means that there is a potentially higher risk if the cancer has already been familial. In general, however, it can be said that a healthy lifestyle helps to reduce the risk of cancer. This includes in particular a vegetable and fruit rich diet, moderate but regular active exercise and the greatest possible avoidance of the supply of pollutants.

Although the computer genius always lived well and most of the health advice always took heeded, he also sickened by the insidious disease. „Nobody wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven do not want to die to get there. And yet death is the goal that we all have in common. And so it should be, because death is most likely the best invention of life. He brings about change. He clears out the old to make room for the new“, said Steve Jobs in 2005 at a guest lecture at the California elite Stanford University. That was exactly one year later, after Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. (Sb)