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You may also be interested in Facing Pancreatic Cancer? A review attributes between 5 and 10 percent of cases to an inherited mutation or familial disposition. In most other affected individuals, pathologists find multiple acquired genetic aberrations in the cancer cells. A recent publication in the ACS journal Cancer indicates that the rising incidence of pancreatic cancer -- on the order of 1 percent per year between and -- is mainly affecting Caucasian men and women.
The only established risks are smoking tobacco and obesity; the cause for the increase is unknown. The statistics are bleak: In the latest ACS analysis, five-year survival was poor, in the range of five percent and, surprisingly, independent of the tumor stage at diagnosis; survival in the United States did not improve in the decade leading up to Years ago, the only treatments for pancreatic cancer were surgery, to remove the tumor, and radiation.
Surgery to the pancreas can be risky, especially in older patients. The digestive enzyme-containing organ is centrally located, near large vessels and easily inflamed. What's more, procedures like a Whipple -- in which all or part of the pancreas is removed -- are rarely curative.
The problem, more often than not, is that by the time a person with pancreatic cancer or their doctor notices something's wrong, the tumor's already invaded nearby structures like the bile duct where it can cause obstruction, jaundice, and pain. After surgery, some patients opt for an observational or palliative care approach.
Treatments for pancreatic cancer after surgery include radiation and sometimes chemotherapy, typically with 5-fluorouracil 5-FU and, in recent years, gemcitabine Gemzar. Pancreatic cancer spreads quickly and, because it is relatively resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, it is notoriously difficult to treat. In fact, says Beatty, until the s, palliative care, aimed solely at relieving pain and discomfort, was the only option for metastatic patients. In , the chemotherapy drug Gemzar gemcitabine was approved by the U.
Food and Drug Administration for pancreatic cancer. Yet, even though Gemzar has been shown to increase survival by a couple of months on average, it is primarily given to patients to lessen pain and relieve symptoms, according to Beatty. Although a number of different chemotherapies have been tested either alone or in various combinations, for the most part, the drugs have had little if any impact on disease progression and survival.
The legislation requires the NCI to evaluate and improve its efforts to develop early detection methods and new therapies for cancers with low survival rates, such as pancreatic cancer. Recent findings also have begun offering doctors and patients hope that progress is on the horizon.
In October , an international team of scientists published in the journal Nature a comprehensive comparative analysis of 99 pancreatic tumors, revealing key genetic changes in the disease that could inspire the development of new drugs as well as methods for early detection. On a different front, two new chemotherapy regimens have shown some benefit in patients with metastatic disease.
In a phase III study published in , the regimen was shown to increase median overall survival by four months compared with Gemzar alone although the treatment is relatively toxic. The other is Abraxane albumin-stabilized nanoparticle paclitaxel in combination with Gemzar. Results released in January from a phase III trial showed it increased overall survival by almost two months compared with Gemzar alone.
The technique, which June developed, is currently being studied in patients with advanced leukemia. June and Beatty are adapting the method for pancreatic cancer, and hope to open a phase I trial for metastatic patients this year. At the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore, oncologist Elizabeth Jaffee and her colleagues have several pancreatic cancer vaccines in development in phase I and II clinical trials for treating early stage and metastatic patients.
And at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, surgical oncologist Jeffery Hardacre has helped launch a phase III trial investigating a vaccine designed to help prevent recurrence in patients whose pancreatic cancer was caught early and could be surgically removed. Today, due to the increasing number of new therapies in development, more and more pancreatic cancer patients are choosing to enroll in a clinical trial.
Throughout her career, Sally Ride inspired children—especially girls—to study math and science. Photo by Dominic Hart. By that time, she had flown on a second space shuttle mission in and had been appointed to the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster.
She also served on the commission that investigated the space shuttle Columbia disaster in In , she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where she encouraged young women who were studying math and science. And in , she initiated EarthKam, a NASA program that gives middle school students a crack at taking and analyzing pictures of Earth from a camera on the International Space Station.
The couple went on to help co-found Sally Ride Science in The organization, based in San Diego, offers educational materials and programs for students in fourth through eighth grade nationwide.
In her book To Space and Back, Ride wrote, "All adventures—especially into new territory—are scary, and there has always been an element of danger in space flight. I wanted to be an astronaut because I thought it would be a challenging opportunity.
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