Re: Cancer

[Guest guest]

Becky,

Are you seeing a specialist in this field? I have seen 3 specialists

and they all have told me the same thing regarding pancreatic cancer.

It is rare to get it. And your increased risk of getting pancreatic

cancer because you have chronic pancreatitis is 40% greater IF you

smoke. Not just because you suffer from CP. But IF you smoke along with

this disease. I was worried to death (literally) about getting it and

stopped smoking cold turkey in 1 day to bring down my odds. I have

heard someone else say that because you have CP your chances are greater

for developing cancer, but have never read this on a medical web site

anywhere. I have only read about the link for smoking and CP.

Why does the doctor mention this everytime you see him? Are there

underlying risks involved with hereditary factors in the family? Does

your husband smoke? What are the factors he sites for saying the chances

of developing cancer are high?

If you aren't with a specialist, then perhaps you should seek one out.

And if you are with a specialist, then perhaps a second opinion of an

equally qualified doctor is in order.

Sandy in California

pop1510 wrote:

>I know this is a weird question, but everytime we go to the Doctor he

>points out that Mike's chances of developing cancer are extremely

>high. They say that now that he has had chronic pancreatitis his

>chances are 30% higher of getting cancer. What does everyone else

>know about this? Is it something that we should worry about? What

>are the symptoms? Mike is now in pain or severly nauseated about 21

>hours out of each day. It is really taking a phsycal and emotional

>toll on him. I try to be supportive and help, but I feel so

>helpless. He is such a wonderful man and this is such an awful

>disease, If I could just take his pain for him and give him a break,

>I would. The cancer scare bothers him and I just thought maybe some

>of you had some feelings on this issue.

>

>

>Thanks,

>Becky

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[Guest guest]

Hi Becky,

As far as cancer associated with CP:

There are papers published in the medical literature that

mentions this but my understanding is that it is still controversial

whether there is an increased risk or not and if so, how much of

an increase there really is. Any time you have chronic

inflammation and cell turnover in an organ / tissue there is a

theoretical increase in cancer risk because of the increased cell

division (which is why sunburns, smoking etc are all risk factors

for certain cancers - partly due to cellular damage and increased

reproduction due to the repair process).

Secondly, interpreting what a 50% increase in risk means on a

personal / practical level has to be considered. Let us say that

someone without chronic pancreatitis has a 1 out of 1,000,000

chance of getting pancreatic cancer ; that is, one person out of

1,000,000 will get this cancer (I am MAKING THESE NUMBERS

UP!, just so you know, for the sake of illustrating the concept,

because I don't know what the risk really is). If you now increase

that risk by 50% that means you now have 1 and a half person

out of 1,000,000 that will get cancer. It doesn't mean that you

have a 50 / 50 chance of getting cancer. It only means that your

risk has been raised by 50%. And 50% of 1 is 1/2 and 1+1/2 is

the new risk factor. So the numbers are not as dire as they

sound when you first run into them.

But, I could be wrong with the interpretation of what your doctor

means but this is how I was taught to interpret numbers that

refer to risk factors.

I hope that this helps you feel less anxious about the numbers.

If you want more information on what is published about the

association of pancreatic cancer and CP I can try to find the

references.

Laurie