Use Vitamin A To Battle Pancreatic Cancer

When it comes to cancer there are some forms that simply get a lot more press coverage than others. Breast cancer, lung cancer and leukaemia are all famous names that you’ve probably heard a lot about. But there are some forms of the disease, while being extremely serious and deadly, you just don’t hear of so often. Pancreatic cancer is a perfect example – it’s not as ubiquitous in health magazines or newspapers, but it’s just as dangerous.

43,000 people in the United States alone were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2010, according to the National Cancer Institute, and across the world the disease affects more than 270,000 people every single year. These are frightening statistics for a disease that can sometimes slip a little under our health radar.

But now it seems that there might be a new way to ensure that pancreatic cancer stays out of your life for good. Researchers from Barts Cancer Institute have found that vitamin A can stop the spread of pancreatic cancer cells by changing the structure of the cells that surround the cancer growth. Vitamin A could be a trusted ally in the war against cancer, so it’s important to make sure that our levels are topped up as often as possible.

Prognosis for pancreatic cancer does not make for easy reading. The five-year survival rate is around 25 percent, but even that is only if the cancer is small and has not yet spread to the lymph nodes. As such any research that points us in the right direction with treating the problem can be seen as a major positive step.

The researchers were quick to suggest that vitamin A might not be the only compound capable of altering the structure of the cells around the cancer, and claimed that further research might open up a brand new area for doctors to start treating the disease.