oncology case study

oncology case study

The client in my case study is a sixty-eight year old male who has been recently diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma with liver metastasis.
There Are two ways a tumor can arise: either in the pancreatic ducts (duct cell origin), or from aciner cells (aciner cell origin). Although there is no definitive cause for the disease, there are several risk factors. These include high-protein and high-fat diet, smoking, hereditary disposition, diabetes mellitus, alcohol abuse, those that suffer from chronic pancreatitis, age, and gender.
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has a higher incidence in males than in females and most diagnosed are between the ages of sixty to eighty (p.5, Anand). Also, those whose occupations exposed them to petroleum and certain industrial chemicals have a higher tendency to develop the disease as well (p. 26, NCI).
My client has several of these risk factors: diabetes mellitus, he is male, aged sixty-eight, reports smoking in the past, and complains of abdominal pain. Also, this client worked and retired from a major airlines as a mechanic where he may have been exposed to jet fuel or other carcinogenic chemicals.
The client’s diagnosis came after extensive outpatient testing form complaints of severe abdominal pain. The client’s primary care physician and gastroenterologist referred him for several diagnostic tests which included: a CAT scan, ultrasound, EGD, colonoscopy, MRI, MRA, a CT- guided liver biopsy, surgery for open biopsy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy wedge biopsy of the right lobe of the liver, Roux-en-Y choledochojejunostoym, tube gastrostomy, and a needle biopsy of the pancreatic head. From all these tests and procedures it was determined that he had pancreatic adenocarcinoma with liver metastasis. This type of cancer is rarely diagnosed during the early stage due to painless tumors. The most common presenting symptoms are pain accompanied with jaundice.
Current treatments for pancreatic adenocarcinoma include surgery, radiation...