Fact Check:
Three Truths About Pancreatic Cancer
By Caperton Gillett
Ready for a quick quiz on pancreatic cancer? If not, you're not alone. The disease isn't as familiar to most people as breast or ovarian cancer, for example, but it's important to know the basics so that you can help protect yourself. Here are a few key facts:
- You can decrease your odds of developing pancreatic cancer. "In terms of risk factors, some things are modifiable," says Dr. Posey. "One is smoking, which might increase the risk of a mutation that's commonly found in pancreatic cancer." The other factor is insulin resistance, which can lead to elevated blood glucose (or "blood sugar") levels and the development of diabetes. Dr. Posey explains that a connection between diabetes and pancreatic cancer is believed to exist, though he says diabetes is hardly a "calling card" for the disease.
Some symptoms of pancreatic cancer include pain in the upper abdomen, poor appetite, unexplained weight loss, and fatigue. Dr. Posey points out that these symptoms are common to several conditions, but it's a good idea to check with your doctor if you experience them. You could help find the disease in its earliest stages and benefit from immediate treatment.
- You have an increasing number of treatment options for pancreatic cancer. In fact, researchers at UAB's Multidisciplinary Gastrointestinal Oncology Clinic are working hard to discover groundbreaking new drugs and antibodies that could make the disease easier to treat. "There are some exciting things on the horizon," says James Posey, M.D., a medical oncologist in the clinic. "Over the next two years, we'll have a lot more information about things that are ‘turned on' or ‘turned off' in pancreatic cancer. They could be potential targets for effective treatment strategies." Currently doctors treat pancreatic cancer with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
- Multidisciplinary care offers "well-rounded" treatment for the disease. Dr. Posey says that the multidisciplinary approach-in which several specialists collaborate to determine the best solution for each patient-is essential to effective, comprehensive pancreatic cancer treatment. "We provide experts in the field, a large amount of information that we go through carefully, and clinical trials for new treatments," he says. "We're working with the best we have, which means we offer something that might be above the current standard of care and provides additional hope."
SIDEBAR:
Could Erbitux Provide an Edge?
Erbitux (cetuximab) is already approved to treat advanced colorectal cancer. But could it, when used with radiation and standard chemotherapy drugs, have similar success against pancreatic cancer? UAB may soon know, following a phase-1 trial of Erbitux as a therapy targeting pancreatic cancer. The National Cancer Institute chose UAB as the sole site for the research initiative.
"The study is completed and was done in locally advanced pancreatic cancer," says Dr. Posey, M.D. He explains that Erbitux is a monoclonal antibody, which is produced in the lab to attack cancer cells much like your own antibodies fight common