Treatments for pancreatic cancer typically depends on the stage of cancer and how far and where it’s spread in the body, according to the American Cancer Society.
However, other factors can play a role too — like your overall health, your age and other medical conditions you may have.
The Most Common Treatments for Pancreatic Cancer:
- Surgery: There are generally two types of surgery used for pancreatic cancer. They include resection surgery. That’s if doctors think the cancer is only in the pancreas, and if they can remove all of cancer it can be curative. The other type of surgery is palliative. That’s used to relieve symptoms, but it’s not a cure.
- Radiation therapy: This treatment can be used in some cases and can be helpful with certain types of pancreatic cancers, including metastatic pancreatic cancer.
- Chemotherapy: This treatment can be used in conjunction with other therapies like radiation or surgery. It’s also used with advanced cancer where surgery may not be an option or if cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
- Ablation or Embolization: These therapies provide a different option for destroying tumors. They are not used that often with pancreatic cancer but can be helpful to relieve symptoms associated with the disease. They are also used when cancer has spread to other organs like the liver.
- Immunotherapy: These drugs help the body’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells. Immunotherapy can be used for pancreatic cancer.
- Targeted therapy: As researchers and doctors learn more about pancreatic cancer, they’re using targeted therapy to attack the changes in pancreatic cancer cells. This drug therapy works differently than chemotherapy.
- Pain control: Using medications or surgical procedures to reduce pain in pancreatic cancer patients.
Pancreatic Cancer Treatment in Miami and South Florida
A pancreatic cancer diagnosis is overwhelming and as you can see the options to treat the disease can be equally overwhelming.
So how do you decide what to do?
In Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties, the experts at the CyberKnife Center of Miami can help by offering guidance and even an all-important second opinion based on your diagnosis. Our medical team has decades of experience in cancer treatment and can help guide you to the treatment option that’s best for you, including if your treatment plan involves radiation therapy. Treating pancreatic cancer with traditional radiation can be difficult because the pancreas sits so close to other vital organs. Cyberknife technology uses targeted radiation to destroy pancreatic cancer with pinpoint accuracy. It’s non-invasive, and because it’s so precise, it leaves surrounding healthy tissue and vital organs unharmed.
The pinpoint accuracy of CyberKnife can be a game-changer in some patients because of its focused therapy. Plus, patients generally need 1-to-5 treatments with CyberKnife as opposed to 25-to-30 with standard radiation. CyberKnife for pancreatic cancer is also pain-free and is often combined with chemotherapy.
CyberKnife for Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
Studies show the growth of pancreatic tumors in patients with advanced disease can be controlled with CyberKnife without damaging the bowels, liver or kidneys. Our radiation oncologists have been treating pancreatic cancer – especially in patients who are poor surgical candidates or in patients where surgery and other treatments have failed – for several decades. According to a 2015 study looking at CyberKnife for locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients, there was excellent clinical efficacy using CyberKnife with minimal toxicity.
We understand how confusing and overwhelming a cancer diagnosis can be but we are here to help you break it all down and understand it in the simplest way. We will walk you through the process every step of the way, making it as easy as possible and get your cancer treatment behind you as quickly as possible. Call the CyberKnife Center of Miami and talk to our cancer experts about how CyberKnife can treat pancreatic cancer or call for an appointment: 305-279-2900. You can also visit our website for more information now: https://www.cyberknifemiami.com