Pancreatic cancer is a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. Each year in the United States, about 42,470 individuals are diagnosed with this condition and 35,240 die from the disease. The prognosis is relatively poor but has improved; the three-year survival rate is now about thirty percent (according to the Washington University School of Medicine), but less than 5 percent of those diagnosed are still alive five years after diagnosis. Complete re...
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Pancreatic cancer is a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. Each year in the United States, about 42,470 individuals are diagnosed with this condition and 35,240 die from the disease. The prognosis is relatively poor but has improved; the three-year survival rate is now about thirty percent (according to the Washington University School of Medicine), but less than 5 percent of those diagnosed are still alive five years after diagnosis. Complete remission is still rather rare.
About 95% of exocrine pancreatic cancers are adenocarcinomas (M8140/3). The remaining 5% include adenosquamous carcinomas, signet ring cell carcinomas, hepatoid carcinomas, colloid carcinomas, undifferentiated carcinomas, and undifferentiated carcinomas with osteoclast-like giant cells. Exocrine pancreatic cancers are far more common than endocrine pancreatic cancers (also known as islet cell carcinomas), which make up about 1% of total cases.
Pancreatic cancer is sometimes called a "silent killer" because early...
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