Posted on 08/23/2019 4:28:16 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been treated for pancreatic cancer in New York City, the Supreme Court announced Friday.
While the court said Ginsburg's tumor "was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body," and no further treatment was needed, pancreatic cancer remains a serious diagnosis for the 86-year-old liberal icon.
Pancreatic cancer was the third-leading cause of death from cancer in the United States in 2018, after lung and colorectal cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
About 95% of people with pancreatic cancer die from it, experts say. It's so lethal because during the early stages, when the tumor would be most treatable, there are usually no symptoms. It tends to be discovered at advanced stages when abdominal pain or jaundice may result. Presently, there are no general screening tools.
There are two types of pancreatic cancer: exocrine tumors and endocrine tumors.
Exocrine tumors are the majority of pancreatic cancers, and the most common form is called adenocarcinoma, which begins in gland cells, usually in the ducts of the pancreas. These tumors tend to be more aggressive than neuroendocrine tumors, the kind that Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs had, but if caught early enough, they can be treated effectively with surgery.
(Excerpt) Read more at kq2.com ...
What a terrible disease.
I personally know so many people who have been taken by pancreatic cancer, in addition to all the celebrities. When I was an undergrad nursing student in the 90s, they told us it was rare. I no longer believe that.
BTW, any news on Alex Trebek?
“Why not just get a pancreas transplant and get rid of the diseased one?”
According to John Hopkins, the long-term outlook for people who receive a pancreas transplant is quite good. People who receive simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplants also tend to have less chance of rejection. A positive long-term result depends on a number of factors including control of blood glucose. But this surgery is used for type I diabetes treatment not cancer.
A pancreas transplant would likely not cure the cancer even with a transplant. If a cancerous tumor is discovered within the pancreas before it spreads to other organs, only the portion of the pancreas containing the tumor is removed via Whipple Surgery. Most often the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas before it is diagnosed.
Even if pancreas transplantation was an option for pancreatic cancer, which it isn’t according to Dr. Daniel Von Hoff one of the worlds foremost oncologist, medical researcher and cancer scientist, the patient would have to take anti-rejection medication which would suppress the immune system. When the immune system is weakened, cancer cells would likely grow and spread at a more rapid pace. And because of the normal late discovery of pancreatic cancer due to the few tests and determinations available, the cancer is normally outside the pancreas and has spread to other tissue in the body. The suppression of the immune system is an open door to further spreading of the disease at an accelerated rate with nothing for the body to fight it with.
rwood
Thank you for the reply. Informative.
RBG gets screened a lot and they may have caught it early.
My favorite also and I felt the same way about that loss.
F cancer.
Yes - I corrected it at #30... All deaths at such young ages....
I agree with you. I would not wish that on anyone.
I had an aortic dissection a few years ago, and when they scanned my abdomen they found a one-inch malignant tumor on my right kidney. I was able to get it removed before it had a chance to spread. The ironic thing is that if I hadn't had the dissection (which is a pretty bad thing in and of itself) I'd never have known about the tumor until it was too late.
I wonder why they don't recommend a CT scan maybe once every five years or so for everybody over a certain age. That might go a long way toward early detection of some very nasty conditions.
My dad just died of cancer at 91.
He went in for his first radiation treatment and took a nose dive immediately following.
Too much for him.
Ginsberg? Yes, she's a pretty nasty piece of work.
Sorry to hear that but she should have stepped aside several years ago.....I dont wish suffering on anyone...nearly...
Well, if cancer is condign punishment for sin, I suppose my wife must be quite a sinner, because she's been struggling with stage iv breast cancer for the past five years. It's under control, but the treatments have been tearing her up.
Nope, the worst cancer of all is the one you have.
For me, it is Chronic Lymphocytic Lymphoma and for my mom, it was liver cancer.
My Mom 6 weeks after surgery. They opened, radiated & shut. It had spread more than apparent preop.
Does a CAT scan show it?
Marilyn Horne (opera singer) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2005. She doesn’t perform anymore but she is still alive.
ML/NJ
...treated definitively...
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WTH does that mean? definitively
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A wonderfully vague word that is used, Stalin-wise, to make a bad prognosis not look as bad as it really is. Most of the articles about Teddy Kennedy and John McCain used similar language that had to be carefully parsed to learn the grim truth. Given the writing about Kennedy and McCain, it looks like she’d better making her funeral arrangements.
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