What Is A Pancreatic Tumor?The pancreas is an organ that operates in the digestive and endocrine systems. It can be described as exocrine, meaning that as part of the digestive system, it secretes enzymes that aid in digestion. It is also endocrine, which means that it secretes important hormones, such as insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin. The most well known hormone is insulin, which regulates blood sugar. Glucagon also helps regulate sugars and salts. Pancreatic tumors arise from the cells that produce these hormones. A tumor of the pancreas is not necessarily cancerous, or malignant. Another distinction is whether or not these tumors secrete hormones. Some of them do and are called "functioning", and others do not and are referred to as "nonfunctioning". Although a tumor may be noncancerous, it can still cause problems. These tumors can increase in size and block the small intestine or biliary tract. Also, functioning tumors can secrete a large amount of hormones which leads to various syndromes. A malignant tumor of the pancreas does result in a low survival rate, so there has been a great deal of research to find a way to improve survival rates and increase life expectancy. Clinical trial drugs like Bevacizumab have been developed to block tumor growth in a few different ways. It may stop the growth of cancer by preventing blood flow from reaching the tumor. As mentioned earlier, pancreatic cancer has a low survival rate. According to the American Cancer Society, the one-year survival rate is 20%, while the five-year rate is 4%. The reason these rates are so low is that pancreatic cancer is often difficult to detect until it is too late. Only about 10% of pancreatic tumors that are detected are confined to the pancreas. Metastatic cancer is often too difficult to cure with surgery. There are different types of pancreatic tumors. An insulinoma is a tumor that secretes insulin which lowers blood sugar. Only about 10% of these tumors are malignant. Another type is a gastrinoma and it secretes extra gastrin, which can cause peptic ulcers due to increased acid and enzymes that are produced. A vipoma is a rare pancreatic tumor that secretes vasoactive intestinal peptide, and a greater percentage of these tumors are malignant (up to 75%). Another pancreatic tumor is a glucagonoma. This secreting tumor increases blood sugar and causes a rash. About 80% of these are malignant, but they grow somewhat slower than other types.
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