Tertiary prevention of pancreatic cancer

The mortality rate of pancreatic cancer is as high as 99%. According to relevant statistics, there were 31,860 new cases of pancreatic cancer in the United States in 2005, and the number of deaths was a shocking 31,720, almost equal to the number of cases. This further highlights the importance of pancreatic cancer prevention.

Pancreatic cancer prevention can be divided into three levels:

Primary prevention: refers to health management and prevention of causes of disease.

The primary prevention of pancreatic cancer mainly addresses the predisposing factors that may lead to pancreatic cancer, and actively treats the causes that may lead to pancreatic and biliary tumors, such as chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cystic tumors, pancreatic intraductal mucinous tumors, gallbladder stones, large gallbladder polyps, etc. In addition, since the occurrence of pancreatic cancer is closely related to lifestyle, prevention of pancreatic cancer also requires changing one's bad living and eating habits.

Secondary prevention: also known as the three early preventions, namely early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment.

It is understood that the five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer with a diameter less than 2 cm can reach 20%~40%, and the five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer with a diameter less than 1 cm can reach 67%, which is much higher than the 3%~5% of mid- and late-stage pancreatic cancer. This shows the importance of early prevention of tumors. To improve the detection rate of early pancreatic cancer, we should first pay attention to the monitoring of high-risk groups, such as those with a family history of pancreatic cancer, those who have suffered from chronic pancreatitis, and those who have undergone subtotal gastrectomy. Secondly, be alert to the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer, such as loss of appetite, abdominal pain and bloating, yellowing of the skin and sclera, lighter stool color, and unexplained weight loss.

Tertiary prevention: symptomatic treatment to prevent the disease from worsening.

Patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer should receive active symptomatic treatment to prevent the disease from worsening, reduce adverse reactions of the disease, prevent recurrence and metastasis of cancer cells, and prevent complications and disability; patients who have lost their ability to work should be actively given rehabilitation treatment to promote their physical and mental recovery as soon as possible so that they can resume their ability to work.