Has Pancreatic Cancer always been this prevelant?

[Taverner]

So far, I've known or known of 12 people who have died from it

And then there's Bill Hicks(RIP), Patrick Swayze(Alive and Fighting), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg(Alive and Fighting)

It seems more than when I was a kid - but then again kids are shielded from a lot of things - but most people I knew and knew of died of heart attacks, prostate cancer or lung cancer back then. This was just the 70's and 80's.

Am I seeing something out of context here, or has there been a rise in the cases of Pancreatic Cancer?

[Mike 03]

1. This question fascinates me too.

I lost an ex girlfriend to it at the age of forty. She was the love of my life. They gave her four months, she made it eleven.

I'm studying it, and every study that comes out I'm reading and saving it...

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Lost my MIL to it 11 years ago. Once they finally got the diagnosis correct it was

swift and brutal. :(

[Mike 03]

3. Your question is pretty important. Maybe it would be good to cross post it in GD. NT

[Swede]

4. My mom and my sister in law both died of it.

Mom smoked,sis was a health fanatic.

[MorningGlow]

5. It runs in my family

My grandmother died of it 35 years ago, and one her sons (my uncle) died of it as well. My dad died of stomach cancer but he also had cancer in his pancreas at the end.

[Left Is Write]

6. I have no idea. My grandfather died of pancreatic cancer in 1977.

[trof]

7. A good friend died from it a few years ago. So did her sister.

I dunno.

[TZ]

8. bear in mind that there may be no overall increase in this cancer

The reporting of high profile cases may make this more prevalent in your view. I would suggest if you are really curious you go to the CDC website and do some research..thats what they do, track overall disease patterns. IIRC, many cancers have actually decreased in mortality rates...
Here's a place to start..
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/uscs/

[Taverner]

9. Exactly - thanks for the link

I want to make sure this isn't an observational fallacy - it just appears that its more prevalent.

[TZ]

10. I do know ONE thing about pancreatic cancer..

The survivablility has increased. To live past about 3 months after dx was nearly unheard of as recently as 15 years ago....My cousin was diagnosed with it and was dead within 6 weeks back in the late eighties...

[Taverner]

12. Interesting

I've always thought of it as a Death Warrant - but some folks have survived it, if only for a few extra years

That cancer scares the bejesus outa me though...

[Mike 03]

16. So much depends upon whether or not it is an exocrine tumor or endocrine.

Those with endocrine tumors have a much better prognosis.

But it's absolutely true that some of the new drugs have enabled people with a prognosis of four months to make it much longer. A year... Maybe more.

[monmouth]

14. My dad was diagnosed initially with gall bladder, they opened him

up, immediately closed him up. He died a week and a half later. He had been in AA for 17 years prior to this but some say the "damage" had been done. I don't know if this is true or not, his younger brother who is a very light drinker is now suffering from the same thing.

[Taverner]

15. Could just be a faulty gall bladder

Most of Human Existence, man only lived to 40 - so breakdown of organs is understandable

But sometimes, there is a trigger or cause

[Taverner]

11. It looks like it hasn't varied much from 1999-2004

Wonder where I'd get info from before 1999...

[darkstar]

13. Here's one study...

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/537123

Interesting that w/ Ginsberg's dx I was wondering the same thing. This seems to show stability of incidence and only marginal--if that--strides in survivor ship.

Only one study, of course...

[DarkTirade]

27. That, and its usually a particularly nasty one.

Which tends to make the ones you hear about stick in your mind more.

[surrealAmerican]

17. Of course, it could just be ...

... that it was harder to diagnose twenty or thirty years ago. You'll want to keep that in mind when you research it.

[JVS]

18. Back in the day it might have just fallen under the rubric of cancer.

They probably didn't detect it until it was in numerous places.

[Mike 03]

19. Here's a book recommendation for anyone interested.

Pancreatic Cancer is something that has definitely haunted my life. If anyone is interested, this is the absolute best textbook on the subject I know.

It's a bit expensive at three hundred dollars, but worth it.

"Pancreatic Cancer" by Daniel Von Hoff, Douglas Evans and Ralph Hruban.

[applegrove]

20. I wondered that too. It does seem to be in the news. A customer of mine told me her sister had it.

[GOPisEvil]

21. Andy Stephenson, too.

From what I have read, it's a fairly rare form of cancer. 95% mortality rate. The real problem with it is there is no test to detect it early and symptoms are similar to other illnesses. Justice Ginsburg happened to have hers caught on an MRI, which was probably looking for something else. I believe researchers are working hard to develop a test for it, since REALLY early detection is the key to surviving.

[Taverner]

24. Yes - we definitely can't forget Andy

RIP friend

[Lyric]

22. I suspect HFCS has played a role.

It's mostly conjecture on my part, but if I were a scientist, this is what I'd be looking into. God knows the level of HFCS use has skyrocketed, and I think that there might be a link between the two. It's hard to find affordable boxed or packaged food these days that doesn't involve HFCS.

Since it's a sugar, obviously the pancreas is going to be involved in the process. It really makes me wonder.

[TZ]

26. I doubt it

Cancer has more to do with the genes/immune system going haywire. HFCS is a simple sugar when it comes right down to it.
I personally don't think HFCS is the poison everyone thinks it is. Its not great for you, no, but chemically its not much different from other sugars. I also participate in a lot of oncological research so I think you are a little off target here.
You also are assuming that there is a big increase in this type of cancer and statistically thats not clear.

[Lil Missy]

23. It has a very short lifespan.

:(

[crimsonblue]

25. Once pancreatic cancer is diagnosed, it is usually terminal.

However, polyps are routinely found before it turns into cancer, so many deaths from it are prevented.

[jobycom]

28. As you get older and encounter health scares, you notice these things more.

It's like when you are eight and all cars are just cars, but when you are 18 you can identify every kind on the road. As you get older and feel pains and symptoms and you start worrying what you might have, and seeing others with illnesses, you are more aware of what kills people. I remember when I was a kid thinking old people just died of old age, but of course now I look at all the causes.

I don't know if it's on the increase, but I had enough symptoms a couple of years ago to scare me, and since then every time I hear of the disease it sticks in my mind. You'd need statistics to prove it, as has been said.

There's another factor people don't consider. I saw somewhere where you mentioned that people used to live to 40. That's not exactly true--human lifespans haven't changed much, but living conditions have led to fewer people dying early, so the average lifespan has increased dramatically. What that means is that a man in 1400 would have been more likely to die early from plague or warfare or infection from minor injury than someone now, but if he avoided those problems, he'd be just as likely to live into his 60s or 70s. Monasteries, especially, saw long life spans because of the better living conditions and less risk of monastic life.

But, all in all, better medical treatment means more people live longer, and avoid deaths from infections and viruses that just 70 years ago would have decimated them. Since they are avoiding other types of deaths, but still have not achieved immortality, they are living long enough to die of illnesses they might not have had time to develop in past generations.

Just random observations.

[WinkyDink]

29. Not to mention BRAIN cancer.

[livetohike]

30. My dad and my grandfather died of pancreatic cancer and I

have three friends who died from this as well....a supposedly rare cancer. Maybe I'm just more aware of it now, but it seems like I meet a lot of people who once I tell them it's in my family, they tell me of those they know who passed away from this disease.