November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and now there's a new tool in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

I recently sat down with the first and only physician in Kentucky to perform this life changing treatment.

More in today's medical news.

Doctor William Evans is here from Norton Health Care.

So, Doctor Evans, why is pancreatic cancer so hard to treat and so hard to cure?

Why is it so deadly?

That's a great question.

It's because pancreatic cancer is diagnosed so late.

That has to do with the anatomy of the pancreas.

It is an organ that is deep in the abdominal cavity.

The liver's on top of it.

The stomach's in front of it and surrounding the pancreas are a number of vital organs.

And so patients don't have symptoms until this tumor has actually grown and spread locally.

And affected some of those important blood vessels or even travel to the liver.

So that's what makes it so hard, is that symptoms come on so late.

And by the time they're there, it's already spread to areas where doing surgery to cure it is not an option.

Wow.

So a silent disease?

Almost.

Yes.

As it gets started.

So when there are symptoms, what are they?

Are there any early symptoms?

There is some when you talk.

When I've talked to my patients with pancreatic cancer, we can go back.

And in hindsight, the most common thing is going to be a vague upper gnawing abdominal discomfort.

And a lot of patients wish they would have pursued it a little bit harder.

So I would encourage people that if they have a persistent pain, more likely after they eat, it's not enough to wear.

Even most patients would say, I need to go to the immediate care center or the emergency room, but something that just doesn't feel right.

You have that little voice in the back of your head saying, maybe I should get that checked out.

That would be something I would encourage them to do.

Patients in their 20s and 30s probably not going to need to do that.

But patients 50 and above, that's when those are the ones that really want to pay attention to it.

Other things are going to be a little decrease of appetite.

Unexplained weight loss.

And one of the bigger things that I'd like to let people know about is patients who are in their sixth or seventh decades of light life and they have, new onset diabetes.

They are not obese.

But somebody says, wow, you might have diabetes.

That can be an early detector of a pancreatic cancer.

Okay.

I had never heard of that before.

Okay.

So is there any way to reduce our risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Anything we can do.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

I think the most important thing is knowing your family history.

And that is not just for pancreatic cancer, but any cancers that run in the family.

Grandparents, mom, dad, aunts, uncles.

And the more cancers that tend to run in the family multiple generations.

I would inquire with your primary care doctor to get genetic testing.

There are different genetic mutations that increase people's risk for pancreatic cancer.

So if they have a family history of different cancers, they get a genetic testing.

They have a certain gene abnormality that's going to increase their risk of pancreatic cancer.

And we can start really thinking about those other risk factors they may have.

Think about their symptoms.

And when we get a good screening program or a screening test, we can get them involved in that.

Okay.

Well let's talk about advancements in this field.

You're the first physician to bring a procedure to Kentucky at health care.

Talk about what that is it and how it helps patients.

Sure.

It's called endoscopic ultrasound.

Radiofrequency ablation, which is a very big, complex tool.

It is a mouthful.

So what it is, it's an output patient procedure, not surgery.

It's an endoscopy procedure, meaning we use a flexible scope that once patients are completely asleep with anesthesia, it goes into the mouth, the scope goes to the stomach and small bowel.

And with that scope is attached a little ultrasound probe.

Ultrasound is simply sound waves that bounce off tissue.

And with that ultrasound probe, I can visualize the pancreas and examine it in its entirety.

I can look at the other structures in the area the liver, the gallbladder, etc.

this endoscopic ultrasound was used initially when I had my training.

We would use a needle and pass that needle into different tumors to get tissue or a biopsy and make the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Well, as medical technology has evolved, the same needle now has a stainless steel tip.

And through that tip we can deliver high energy electricity called radiofrequency ablation, which is kind of like cooking or microwaving the tumor from the inside.

That has a really good effect.

Okay, it's not a cure, but but it helps significantly.

Yes, a lot of studies have shown that no, this is absolutely not a cure.

And we do this along with standard treatments in patients, who have pancreatic cancer that have been diagnosed.

We are not doing it on patients that may become surgical candidates down the road, but those that are unfortunately not surgical candidates for a cure, they're undergoing chemotherapy.

Those are the ones we want to offer.

Endoscopic ultrasound to.

And, what it does is it decreases the tumor size, and over half of the patients that decrease in the tumor size can help with their pain, as well as what we call their performing status, their overall well-being, their degree of fatigue, nausea, weight loss, maybe even improve their appetite.

And a couple of studies have shown that it does increase survival rates.

Okay.

Doctor Evans, thank you so much for your time for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Okay.

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most challenging cancers to treat, with many patients diagnosed at an advanced stage.

It's also the third leading cause of cancer death in the US.