Conclusion

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=A Personal Story by Leslie Quintanilla=

This past summer, both my uncle and grandmother passed away within a month of each other due to pancreatic cancer. Prior to their diagnoses I had never really heard too much about this disease so learning about it through their experience was quite powerful, yet it also triggered numerous question on pancreatic cancer which had not been answered by the time of their death. My uncle was the youngest of my grandmother's 4 children. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and passed away in 2011. My grandmother, who was clearly much older than her own son, had been diagnosed and passed away two months after her diagnosis. Of the two it was my grandmother who passed away first.

My uncle was a young, fun loving man who was always the life of the party. Married with children at a young age, my uncle worked hard to provide for his family and get his kids to a great colleges such as SCU and Saint Marys. My uncle did not live the healthiest life style. He enjoyed his alcohol, especially at family functions where he would be the fun loving man dancing on the dance floor and striking fun and passionate conversations around the room. Also in his younger years, he did pick up a habit of smoking, but eventually was able to quit. Finally, he was not the most fit man. Over the years since I could remember him as a little girl, he gained extra weight, but nothing too drastic. When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer he began treatment by surgical removal of the tumor. When that did not work he resorted to numerous forms of chemotherapy. Some would work for a time, yet it would always come back. During his last few months, his cancer got worse and there was not much more he could do in the States, so he decided to seek treatment else where. He ended up going to Cuba, to try a chemo treatment which was not used in the US, but when that did not work he returned home to spend time with family before he passed.

My grandmother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few weeks before my uncle took off to Cuba. She lived a very healthy life style and always lived a comfortable life. A very small and petite woman, my grandmother never smoked, never drank, and was always on the slimmer side. Her diagnosis hit our family hard since we were already preoccupied with supporting my uncle. We understood that her old age may have played a large role, yet it was unbelievable that we had two family members diagnosed with the same horrendous condition at the same time. This is when I learned that pancreatic cancer was hereditary. When her pancreatic cancer was found, her doctors decided to not try to fight the cancer with aggressive methods due to her fragile condition. Rather they focused more on assisting her on managing pain and discomfort.

When I was assigned this project in my Cancer Biology class, I knew I wanted to do research on the risk factors of pancreatic cancer to get a better understanding of what happened between my uncle and grandmother. I wanted to study the risk factors and compare them to their life styles. I love both my uncle and grandmother, and doing this project made me feel closer to them and would help me with life decisions in terms of my life choices that of my future family. I also wanted to know why my uncle was able to live over a year and half with this condition while my grandmother passed away 2 months after diagnosis. I know my grandmother was fragile, but even when my uncle was more fragile he did respond to some treatments, so why not try the same on my grandmother? Doing the research for the project, and having more discussions with my parents, I learned a lot about pancreatic cancer and help me understand on a deeper level.

It is clear now that pancreatic cancer is most likely in my family, however I believe now that due to some lifestyle choice, my uncle may have progressed this condition without knowing. Being overweight, consuming alcohol, and an ex-smoker, my uncle was exposed to a majority of the environmental factors, in addition to the genetic factor. This provided some reasons for why my uncle got pancreatic cancer at such a young age compared to my grandmother. If pancreatic cancer is in our family, he simply took some steps to triggering it earlier. I also learned that for a few years before her diagnosis, my grandmother had stomach issues which her doctors gave her medicine for, yet it was a constant problem. As stated in our project, one symptom of pancreatic cancer is abdominal pain, so it could be possible that my grandmother had pancreatic for a much longer time than we know of. Pancreatic cancer's death rate is mostly due to the its low detection rate so it is possible that these stomach pains were because of her cancer. If true, this could mean that my grandma could have lived longer than my uncle even though she received less treatment. Due my initial stages of research, all data was pointing to the suggestion that my grandmother, due to her lack of exposure to the environmental factors she had the greater chance of living longer after diagnosis. She was a female who never drank, smoke, and was always thin. Now its clear that due to her characteristics, she may have prevented her cancer for forming or becoming troublesome when compared to my uncle.

They both lived a happy and loving life, and my family and I will miss them dearly. Yet now that we know that pancreatic cancer is in our family we can make smarter choices to live a healthier life and monitor any worry some conditions which could be a sign of cancer. I also hope that my family joins one of the registries so that we can do our parts in pancreatic research.

=Conclusion= Even with all the astonishing research that has been done on pancreatic cancer, it is both scary yet very clear that much more needs to be understood to truly gain control of it. Even with knowledge of these factors, it is still not clear which is the highest factor for triggering pancreatic cancer. There are so many factors which could contribute to pancreatic cancer that it will take numerous years and an extensive amount of research to get a better understanding of the grand scheme of how pancreatic cancer comes to be. In addition, much needs to be done to learn how to detect it earlier so that treatments can be done soon enough that they have a more effective impact. The best way to avoid Pancreatic Cancer or delay prognosis is through avoiding abuse of the environmental factors listed on this website as well as being more aware of symptoms if pancreatic cancer is within your family. To learn more about pancreatic cancer check out this websites below. 1. [|National Cancer Institutue] 2. [|Mayo Clinic] 3. [|Pancreatica] 4. [|Pub Med Health] 5.[| WebMD]