tailieunhanh - Cancer of the Pancreas

Investigate Review existing sources, like workplace sick leave, accident, compensation and pension records. Don’t forget retired members – many cancers take decades to emerge, so may only occur after a worker has finished working. Newspaper reports may highlight local deaths linked to occupational disease. Where there is a suspicion of a problem, dig deeper. Surveys Do-it-yourself research can quickly identify problems. This need not be a highly scientific and time-consuming business. A union rep could ask workers on their lunch break if they have concerns about a particular job or substance, or if they had noticed any worrying sick. | Chapter 7 Cancer of the Pancreas Charles Key INTRODUCTION Cancer of the pancreas is one of the most rapidly fatal of all cancers and most cases are first recognized at a far advanced clinical stage. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 33 730 new cases of pancreatic cancer in 2006 and 32 300 deaths. Only cancers of the lung colon and breast cause more deaths than pancreatic cancer each year. 1 Currently there are few definitive recommendations for prevention and early detection. Cigarette smoking is probably the most consistently identified causal risk factor. Treatment is often limited to supportive care palliation and pain control. The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is for white males and for black males. For white and black females the lifetime risks are and respectively 2 . Because survival rates are low and survival times are short the lifetime risks of dying from pancreatic cancer are only slightly lower than the risks of being diagnosed. The pancreas is a complex organ with exocrine components acinar glands and ducts that produce and deliver digestive enzymes and fluids to the small intestine. Endocrine components islets of Langerhans secrete hormones including insulin into the blood stream. Both components can give rise to malignant neoplasms but the vast majority of all pancreatic cancers are exocrine adenocarcinomas arising from cells of the pancreatic ducts. Acinar cells comprise at least 80 of the cells of the pancreas 3 however acinar cell carcinomas were less than 1 of the total pancreatic cancers in this series. Endocrine carcinomas of the pancreas represent about 3 of all pancreatic cancers. They tend to occur at younger ages and have a better prognosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between 1988 and 2001 46 968 cases of cancer of the pancreas were diagnosed within the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results SEER Program of the National Cancer Institute NCI . Please see the introductory .