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IPMN-associated carcinoma is pancreatic cancer that has grown out of a mucus-producing cyst in the pancreatic duct. Because the cyst is often being watched, the cancer is found smaller and earlier, and about four in ten patients are alive five years after surgery against two in ten for ordinary pancreatic cancer; the advantage belongs to the colloid type, not the tubular type. Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Invasive carcinoma arising in an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN-associated carcinoma) says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Pancreatoduodenectomy, distal pancreatectomy or total pancreatectomy according to the extent of duct involvement, with regional lymphadenectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy as for ductal adenocarcinoma; surveillance of the remnant gland.
Treated as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: resection with adjuvant chemotherapy when removable, the chemotherapy rows of the parent page when not; the parent record carries the trials.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.