Edu Guedes is operated to remove pancreatic cancer; What are the symptoms of the disease

Presenter and chef Edu Guedes, 50, underwent surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor last Saturday (5) in São Paulo. The disease was discovered after a renal crisis, which motivated more detailed exams.

Pancreatic cancer is known to be silent and aggressive, but there is still no specific information about the stage of Guedes’ disease.

The pancreas is an essential gland for the body, responsible for the production of insulin, a hormone that allows the use of glucose as a source of energy by cells.

Early cancer detection is critical to improving prognosis, enabling less invasive treatments and increasing the chances of healing. However, symptoms such as abdominal pain, indigestion and weight loss are often discreet and ignored, making it difficult to diagnose initial.

Main signs of the disease

In the early stages, pancreatic cancer usually has no symptoms. When they appear, the tumor may be in advanced phase.

According to the National Cancer Institute (INCA), early diagnosis seeks to identify tumors in early stages through clinical, laboratory, endoscopic or image exams, either in people with symptoms or at risk groups.

Currently, there is no scientific evidence that prove benefits higher than the risks of population tracking for this type of cancer, so it is not recommended for the general population.

In Brazil, pancreatic cancer corresponds to about 2% of cancer cases and 4% of disease -related deaths, most common in people over 60 and predominant among men.

Common symptoms

• Stomach and back pain
• Inexplicated weight loss
• Indigestion
• Changes in feces, such as fluctuation

Other possible signs:

• Loss of appetite
• Jaundice (yellowing of skin and eyes)
• General sensation of discomfort
• Difficulty swallowing
• Recent diagnosis of diabetes

Risk factors

Healthy lifestyle is the best way to prevent. It is important to avoid smoking (active and passive) and maintain proper body weight, as overweight and obesity increase the risk of diabetes, which in turn raises the chances of developing pancreatic cancer.

According to Inca, about 10% to 15% of cases are associated with hereditary factors, such as:

• Genetic syndromes linked to breast and ovary cancer (GENES BRCA1, BRCA2 and PALB2)
• Peutz-Joghers Syndrome
• Hereditary pancreatitis

The non -hereditary factors include:

• Smoothness
• Overweight
• Diabetes mellitus
• Chronic non -hereditary pancreatitis

The latter are mainly linked to the lifestyle and can be modified.

In addition, occupational exposure to solvents, tetracloroethylene, styrene, vinyl chloride, epicloridrine, HPA and pesticides is also related to increased risk. Rural workers, building maintenance and oil industry are the most exposed to these substances.

The counterattack of medicine

But not everything is bad news when it comes to pancreatic cancer.

“For a long time, we had the idea that this was a tumor against which we could do very little,” explains Duílio Rocha, director of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology, in a report published in February 2023.

“But in recent years, we have had a number of advances that have improved this scenario. Today, the chance of healing is six times higher than two decades ago, especially when we are able to use the best tools to diagnose and treat early,” he adds.

When the gland tumor is detected in the early stages, surgery is often the first alternative to dealing with the problem.

Now, if the disease has evolved or spread to other parts of the body, health professionals appeal to chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

In some cases, the chemical itself can decrease the tumor, which opens the possibility of surgery to remove localized lesions in the gland.

More advanced options also start to go into play. One is immunotherapy, a class of medicines that stimulates the patient’s own immune system to combat cancer cells.

“For now, these medicines are only available to individuals with a specific genetic mutation, which corresponds to about 1% of cases,” says Siqueira.

Another recent novelty is the use of Car-T Cells, a method already approved against blood tumors that consists of extracting immunological cells from the patient himself, modifying them in the laboratory and reintroducing them in the body, to recognize and attack the tumor.

“This, however, is still an experimental treatment that needs to be more studied,” ponders the clinical oncologist.

Although pancreatic transplantation is an option for patients with diabetes who have serious complications, it is not available as cancer treatment. This is because this surgery requires the use of drugs that inhibit the immune system -which, in a patient with this tumor, would make cancer cells spread faster to other parts of the body.

If therapeutic perspectives against pancreatic cancer evolve, the guidelines for preventing the disease remains the same.

“Our main recommendation to avoid such a disease is to seek healthy lifestyle habits,” suggests Rocha.

“This includes maintaining proper weight, a diet based on vegetable sources and low saturated fat, practicing physical activity and avoiding smoking,” the doctor concludes.

*This text was originally published in February 2023 and updated after the diagnosis of Edu Guedes

This text was originally published here.