Diagnosis
After a physical examination, if your doctor thinks that you are suffering from pancreatic cancer, he or she will ask to go through below mentioned tests:
Imaging tests: In this test, the pictures of organs are taken which helps doctors in proper diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed with the help of techniques like computerized tomography scans, ultrasound, positron emission tomography (PET) scans, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Ultrasound: An Endoscopic ultrasound helps in getting the image of the pancreas. This device is put inside the mouth of the patient and it goes to the stomach, where it clicks the pictures of the pancreas.
Biopsy: In this procedure, a small part of the tissue of the infected area is extracted as a sample and is sent to the laboratory for testing.
Blood test: Your doctor may ask you to go through a blood test to see whether tumor makers (a type of protein) is present in the blood. This tumor maker is shed from the cancerous cells of the pancreas. Its presence in the blood means you are suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Once pancreatic cancer is diagnosed, then your doctor will do a staging test. This test helps in diagnosing on which stage your pancreatic cancer is. This helps enormously in the treatment as your doctor will prescribe the treatment based on the stage of pancreatic cancer.
Treatment
As mentioned earlier, the treatment of pancreatic cancer depends on which stage it is and what is the location of cancer. Treatment also depends on the overall health of the patients and their preference. Most people want to remove cancerous cells. However, when it is not possible, the main aim then is to hinder the growth of cancerous cells.
Your doctor may recommend treatment like surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of these. In the case of advanced pancreatic cancer, your doctor will opt for symptom relief (palliative care).
