A new experiment has developed a two-in-one treatment which is considered to be an extraordinary discovery in order to cure pancreatic cancer. The new discovery is also believed to improve a human’s survival capabilities.
Researchers Discover Potential Cure For Pancreatic Cancer
The pancreas is a glandular organ present behind the stomach in the human body. Cancer in the pancreas known as “pancreatic cancer” is caused when its cells start to multiply themselves too much and they form a mass out of it. It is very dangerous as these cancer cells can invade other body parts also.
As per reports of the year 2015, pancreatic cancer caused 411,600 deaths throughout the world. Among all cases, there is a survival rate of 25% for people who live for one year more and 5% for people who live for five more years. The five-year living cases have a chance of getting 20% chances to live if they get treated early.
The symptoms of pancreatic cancer are:-
- Back pain and abdominal pain – This pain is characterized with it spreading from the stomach to the back. Doctors understand the part of pancreas which is affected by locating the place where it pains. There are chances of the pain increasing with time and it may even increase during the night time.
- Jaundice – In cases of cancer on the head of the pancreas can result into a yellow tint changing the color of the whites in the eye or skin. It may or may nit cause pain and may also result in darkened urine.
- Weight Loss – A sudden reduction of appetite or poor digestion due to digestive system not functioning properly can cause the unexplained weight loss.
- Constipation and Nausea – Cancer lead to formation of tumor which can compress the organs beside or around it which can complicate digestive processes and emptying the stomach. This causes nausea and illness. Indigestion then further leads to constipation.
- Diabetes – It is seen around 50% of the patients have diabetes along with pancreatic cancer. It is said that in these cases diabetes is caused due to cancer.
Some of the UK-based researchers aimed to combine two different treatments to explore the possibility of anti-cancer benefits if both the treatments worked together.
The research was conducted by the experts of the Institute of Cancer Research, London. They used immunotherapy and High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). Immunotherapy was a process to use a drug to help the immune system to fight against cancer. On the other hand, HIFU blast the tumor using some sound wave pulses. Both the experiment were combined as Immunotherapy works against other cancers, but pancreatic cancer shows better resistance.
Following are the aims, expectations, and results of the experiment:-
• HIFU was used as it aimed to hit the outer layer of pancreatic cancer which can resist immunotherapy.
•HIFU can create holes in that barrier, through which the drugs used in immunotherapy can get in and start fighting back against cancer.
• The research used mice to continue the research. The mice had pancreatic tumors.
• As a result, the mice which got treated with the double treatment lived for 25% more than the mice that had only one of the treatments.
• After it was published, it was found that the double treated mice had a 40% increased lifespan than the mice which were not treated at all.
Pancreatic cancer is a worldwide problem and it has the title of 11th most common type of cancer in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the type of cancer has the lowest rate of surviving individuals in the UK. More than 50% of the patients die in a span of three months of diagnosis.
The leader of the study, Prof. Gail Ter Haor (Therapeutic Ultrasound professor) of the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and study author, Dr. Petros Mouratidis (Scientific officer of Therapeutic Ultrasound) of The Institute of Cancer Research, both hoped that this discovery leads to successful human tests and further better level treatment of pancreatic cancer.
We can conclude with positive hopes floating around us regarding the treatment of pancreatic cancer around the world.
