Cancer is a disease of cells and organs that spreads rapidly by nature. A safe way to treat the condition is catch her during the early stages of her development.
But pancreatic cancerdue to its location deep in the body, is notoriously difficult to detect early on. Four tracks on the legs could be among the first signs of the diseaseaccording to health agencies.
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Pancreatic cancer has a unique ability to induce the blood to a hypercoagulant state.
In other words, the blood of pancreatic cancer patients it has an abnormal tendency to clot, putting it at increased risk of blood clotting.
Therefore, a clot in the leg is sometimes among the first clues that someone has pancreatic cancer, according to the Cancer Society.
“This is called Deep venous thrombosis”, explains the health agency.
“Symptoms can include pain, swelling, redness, and warmth in the affected leg. Sometimes a piece of the clot can break off and travel to the lungswhat can make it hard to breathe or cause chest pain«.
A blood clot that travels to the lungs is medically known as pulmonary embolism or PEwhich entails a high risk of mortality.
“Still, having a blood clot It usually doesn’t mean you have cancer. Most blood clots are caused by other things,” adds the Cancer Society.
It recently came to the attention of researchers that up to 70 percent of cancer patients are unaware that they are at higher risk of DVT than the general population.
The discovery arose from the results of a survey conducted by the European Cancer Patients Coalition (ECPC)which evaluated the awareness and knowledge of patients about the Cancer-associated DVT.
But apart from the fact that the condition is difficult to detect early, pancreatic cancer is also notoriously difficult to treat.
This makes pancreatic cancer is the deadliest cancer in the bodyaccording to Dr. Santhi Swaroop Vege, director of the pancreatic diseases group at Mayo Clinic.
In fact, the disease has an overall survival rate of five years of about seven percentdespite the remarkable medical advances made in recent years.
The disease is typically characterized by nonspecific symptoms, such as weight loss and abdominal pain, which makes early detection difficult.
The location of the pancreas in the body also makes biopsy or imaging difficult.
Doctor Vege told the News Network: “That is one of the biggest problems we face. Usually these people will have indigestion and acid reflux, before someone finally thinks of a CT scan«.
In fact, the condition tends to be in advanced stages when abdominal pain or jaundice has resulted.
«By that time, it’s too late,» Dr. Vege noted. «Yes [el cáncer] it’s located in the pancreas and it doesn’t affect the main structures, so the best treatment, of course, is resection, a big surgery.»
However, the best way to treat pancreatic cancer is to completely remove the tumor before it spreads to neighboring regions.
Men have a slightly higher risk of pancreatic cancer compared to women, which has been attributed in part to higher rates of smoking among men.