New Hope for Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Recently the University of Colorado Hospital conducted a medical trial. The results of this trial proved beneficial for the patients suffering from pancreatic cancer. In this trial, a new technique was used to shrink the tumor very localized and concentrated medication.

In this therapy, doctors have been using a combination of drug called Tumor Necrosis Factor along with the Imaged Guided Radiation Therapy technology. This therapy shows result in two phases. According to Denver news, in the first phase, “doctors use an endoscope through the mouth to the stomach to deliver the drug and inject it directly into the tumor”. In the second phase tumor is filled with a drug and is subjected to radiation blast on daily basis until the tumor breaks down.

During the trial, doctors noted “patients with the standard treatment survive about eight-and-a-half months and that patients with this new treatment live about eleven-and-a-half months.”

Signs and Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, Pancreatic cancer begins when cancerous cells “begin in the ducts of the pancreas, but they sometimes develop from the cells of that make the pancreatic enzymes.” According to the Mayo Clinic, there are many signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer including the following:

• Weight loss
• Pain upper abdomen
• Yellow skin
• Loss of appetite
• Whites of the eye turning yellow
• Depression

Although pancreatic cancer can occur because of various reasons but one of the recent risk is that of use of Byetta.

Byetta is prescribed to the patients suffering from type 2 diabetes. It is available in an intravenous form. The use of Byetta regulates blood sugar and glucose levels in the type 2 diabetic patients. Eli Lilly and Company and Amylin Pharmaceuticals manufactured the drug to the market in 2005. Recently the drug has been associated with pancreatitis, which can develop into cancer if not treated on time.