There are different types of treatment for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Different types of treatment are available for patients with pancreatic cancer. Some treatments are standard (the currently used treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials.
A treatment clinical trial is a research study meant to help improve current treatments or obtain information on new treatments for patients with cancer.
When clinical trials show that a new treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new treatment may become the standard treatment.
Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. Some clinical trials are open only to patients who have not started treatment.
Five types of standard treatment are used:
Surgery
One of the following types of surgery may be used to take out the tumor:
Whipple procedure: A surgical procedure in which the head of the pancreas, the gallbladder, part of the stomach, part of the small intestine, and the bile duct are removed. Enough of the pancreas is left to produce digestive juices and insulin.
Total pancreatectomy: This operation removes the whole pancreas, part of the stomach, part of the small intestine, the common bile duct, the gallbladder, the spleen, and nearby lymph nodes.
Distal pancreatectomy: Surgery to remove the body and the tail of the pancreas. The spleen may also be removed if cancer has spread to the spleen.
If the cancer has spread and cannot be removed, the following types of palliative surgery may be done to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life:
Biliary bypass: If cancer is blocking the bile duct and bile is building up in the gallbladder, a biliary bypass may be done.
During this operation, the doctor will cut the gallbladder or bile duct in the area before the blockage and sew it to the small intestine to create a new pathway around the blocked area.
Endoscopic stent placement: If the tumor is blocking the bile duct, surgery may be done to put in a stent (a thin tube) to drain bile that has built up in the area.
The doctor may place the stent through a catheter that drains the bile into a bag on the outside of the body or the stent may go around the blocked area and drain the bile into the small intestine.
Gastric bypass: If the tumor is blocking the flow of food from the stomach, the stomach may be sewn directly to the small intestine so the patient can continue to eat normally.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells or keep them from growing.
External radiation therapy uses a machine outside the body to send radiation toward the area of the body with cancer.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing.
When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the drugs enter the bloodstream and can reach cancer cells throughout the body (systemic chemotherapy).
Combination chemotherapy is treatment using more than one anticancer drug.
Chemoradiation therapy
Chemoradiation therapy combines chemotherapy and radiation therapy to increase the effects of both.
Targeted therapy
Targeted therapy is a type of treatment that uses drugs or other substances to identify and attack specific cancer cells.
Targeted therapies usually cause less harm to normal cells than chemotherapy or radiation therapy do.
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are targeted therapy drugs that block signals needed for tumors to grow. Erlotinib is a type of TKI used to treat pancreatic cancer.
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