Pancreatic Cancer Stage 4

Cancer has spread beyond the pancreas and into distant locations in the body such as the liver or bones.

Pancreatic cancer stage 4. Staging helps your doctor to design the best course of treatment. The condition of stage 4 pancreatic cancer is known to have a poor prognosis. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose early because the pancreas isn t located in an area of the body where a growth could be felt during a regular exam. The earliest stage pancreas cancers are stage 0 carcinoma in situ and then range from stages i 1 through iv 4.

Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Cancers with similar stages tend to have a similar outlook and are often treated in much the same way. The last stages often occur rapidly. As of now many medical resources pin the median survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients to be about three to five months depending on the condition of the patient.

As a rule the lower the number the less the cancer has spread. The stages show whether cancer has spread inside your body and if so where it is located. Between the two appointments i did a lot of research on pancreatic cancer. Fewer than 10 percent of people are diagnosed before the disease spreads to lymph nodes or elsewhere and even in that most favorable category fewer than 1 in 4 will survive 5 years.

Two weeks later in june i was able to see an oncologist near my home outside bangor maine. A higher number such as stage iv means a more advanced cancer. Stage 4 pancreatic cancer is the most advanced stage. The pancreas is an organ that supports the digestive system and.

In the u s there will be approximately 45 000 pancreatic cancer diagnoses in 2013 and nearly 40 000 deaths. A diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer means that a person s cancer is no longer contained to just the pancreas and has spread to other organs such as the liver abdominal cavity lungs or bones. When cancer that first formed in the pancreas spreads to other parts of the body doctors classify it as stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Stage 4 pancreatic cancer what to expect at the end if you have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer your doctor will first want to know what stage of cancer you have.

When i got to the oncologist s office i was told i had stage iv pancreatic cancer. When compared with other forms of cancer the median survival rate even after diagnosis at an early stage is worst.