If a person is diagnosed with stage iv pancreatic cancer, this implies that the cancer has spread from the pancreas to distant locations within the body. The locations include the liver, lungs, or organs near the pancreas like the stomach, spleen, or intestines. Stage iv pancreatic cancer is sometimes diagnosed only when the patient has been taken up for surgical exploration of the abdomen. In these cases the diagnosis is given after a pathological examination of the specimen. Let us see what is stage iv pancreatic cancer.
The question what is stage iv pancreatic cancer can be answered in two ways. Patients who have this stage of pancreatic cancer again fall into two groups. There are those in stage iv A where the cancer is limited mainly to the pancreas and may also involve adjacent organs or blood vessels. This si called localized or locally advanced pancreatic cancer. In stage iv B the pancreatic cancer has usually spread to distant organs like the liver or lungs. In this case the cancer is said to be metastatic cancer.
We also need to look at the treatment aspect in what is stage iv pancreatic cancer. The aim of treating patients with stage iv A of cancer is usually to bring a disease free period. The length of the cancer free period may range from months to years. This is not the case in stage iv B. In this stage the aim of treatment is to relieve the patient of cancer pain and to control any other problems he or she may have due to the cancer. The unfortunate part is that stage iv of pancreatic cancer is not really removable by surgery and hence one cannot actually seek a cure in such cases. If surgery is recommended in such cases, it is aimed at reducing the symptoms due to cancer and to give such patients a better quality of life. The recommended line of therapy for this stage of pancreatic cancer is chemotherapy. The standard chemotherapy drug which is used to treat advanced pancreatic cancer is gemcitabine.
While looking at treatment modalities in what is stage iv pancreatic cancer, we should also look at the different approaches available to such patients. The treatment regimen may consist of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, biological therapy, or a combination of these treatment techniques. When two or more techniques are used in combination it is called multi-modality treatment. This mode of treatment has been used by doctors to imporove the patient's chances of cure or to prolong survival time in case cure is not possible. The general health of the patient, the immunity of the body, and the extent of disease determine what can be the likely cure rate and survival time. The treatment for Stage iv A may include surgery to free the patient of symptoms like jaundice or obstruction of the bowel, chemotherapy, or chemoradiation, which is chemotherapy and radiation delivered together. In stage iv B of the cancer the aim is to kill cancer cells that have spread throughout the body. In such cases chemotherapy is the treatment modality favored.
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