Abdominal stress may improve or worsen after eating, and the pain may increase after lying down. Because its symptoms mimic many other common health problems, it often goes undetected until it is too late to treat effectively. When early diagnosis and early treatment are possible, however, survival chances increase. Imaging with endoscopic ultrasound may aid early diagnosis. Researchers are also rapidly building a library of potential genetic markers that indicate the onset of pancreatic cancer.
Treatment includes chemotherapeutic drugs and traditional surgical techniques.
FDA's approval of Gemzar last May was based on two clinical studies in patients with cancer that was locally advanced or had spread beyond the pancreas. A second study conducted in 63 patients previously treated with 5-FU therapy and then given Gemzar showed a clinical benefit response of 27 percent and a median survival of 3.8 months. More than 2,800 patients received the drug under this program between February 1995 and May 1996. Treatment INDs allow drug developers to give patients access to drugs before they are approved for marketing in cases of immediately life-threatening or otherwise serious diseases. Cryosurgery, a type of surgery in which extremely low temperatures are employed either locally or generally to destroy tissue, is also being investigated for use in pancreatic cancer.