Adenocarcinoma: Definition, Symptoms, Treatment, and More

Cancer is one of the many illnesses that people around the world dread. It usually brings a lot of pain and hardship to families. There are various classifications by which you can specify the type of cancer that exists.

But if you’ve known anyone with a type of cancer affecting their organs, you’ve probably heard of adenocarcinoma. In this article, we’ll go into detail on what this entails. By the end of the article, you should have a fairly comprehensive understanding of what happens here.

How Does Adenocarcinoma Occur?

To better understand how adenocarcinoma happens, you should first understand how important fluid is in your bodily functions. If your body is a well-oiled machine, the fluid your body produces is the oil itself. Various fluids are produced for different purposes. For example, gastric juices help break down your food into nutrients. Meanwhile, your lungs produce the pleural fluid that essentially keeps your lungs from sticking to themselves.

When your cells are functioning properly, everything should be well. But sometimes, it starts growing out of control. Because of the mutations in the DNA replication process that happen as a result, your body makes errors in cell reproduction and creates tumors. Some of these tumors are benign. These non-cancerous tumors are adenomas.

Meanwhile, the cancerous ones are adenocarcinomas. They infect the healthy tissues in your organ. And from there, they spread to other parts of your body.

Carcinoma and Adenocarcinoma Definitions: How Are They Different?

Carcinoma is the more general term that refers to all types of cancers that begin in all epithelial cells. And going back to the established meaning of adenocarcinoma, it specifically applies to those that start at the fluid-producing cells. This means that all adenocarcinoma is carcinoma, but not all carcinoma is adenocarcinoma. However, what happens with both is practically the same.

Different Types of Adenocarcinoma Cancers

Many organs in our body have glandular cells. Therefore, all of these are potential hosts of adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma can manifest as:

What Are the Symptoms of Adenocarcinoma Cancer?

Because of the nature of adenocarcinoma, the symptoms can vary greatly. It would mostly depend on the organ affected, but you’ll find certain symptoms like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss across various types. Below, we also listed symptoms particular to each common type:

Lung Cancer

Breast Cancer

Colorectal Cancer

Prostate Cancer

Esophageal Cancer

Stomach Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer

If you experience any of these symptoms, there’s a chance that you have adenocarcinoma. We strongly advise going to your doctor so they can rule out other possibilities and give you a diagnosis.

Please note that for some types of cancer, you may not even experience any symptoms until it’s progressed. Doing your regular checkup will help your doctor detect any anomalies early on.

How Is Adenocarcinoma Diagnosed?

Because adenocarcinoma can affect different organs, the way it will be diagnosed will depend on your symptoms. There are particular tests that would be appropriate for various types of cancer. For example, the doctor may order a colonoscopy to diagnose colorectal cancer or a mammogram for breast cancer.

As part of the diagnostic process, these tests may be ordered too:

Metastasis of Adenocarcinoma

In some cases of adenocarcinoma, it would only reside in the original organ where it was first detected. Short of not having cancer at all, this is the most favorable case as targeting the cancerous cells would be easier.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case all the time. Some of the cancer cells can break away from the original organ and travel to the other ones through the lymph system or the bloodstream. Once that happens, it’s already considered invasive adenocarcinoma.

Usually, the organs are nearest to the one initially affected. For example, breast cancer would usually spread to the lymph nodes first. Meanwhile, pancreatic cancer would get to the liver. This happens in the more advanced stages of the disease.

But metastasis doesn’t just happen from the original organ. From the affected organ, the process can repeat with the cancer cells spreading somewhere else.

Adenocarcinoma Prognosis

The good news is the overall survival rate of adenocarcinoma looks good. For localized adenocarcinoma, the survival rate is as high as 85%. There are no specific numbers for adenocarcinoma as a subtype. But if you want to be more familiar with the odds, look into the specific type of cancer.

Just like with any type of cancer, the odds of survival go down depending on how far it has spread already. The severity can also decrease the odds. But ultimately, only a trained medical professional can give a relatively accurate prognosis based on your test results.

What you can do right now is manage the odds to turn in your favor. We’ll discuss this in greater detail in the next section. Another thing that would help is detecting the disease before it spreads. Early detection gives you more comprehensive (and perhaps even more effective) treatment options that can improve your prognosis.

How Can You Minimize Your Risk for Adenocarcinoma?

Both your genes and the environment determine your risk of contracting adenocarcinoma. But while there’s not much that can be done as far as the hereditary components are concerned, you have some control over environmental factors. These lifestyle changes can help reduce your risk of getting adenocarcinoma:

What Are Your Treatment Options for Adenocarcinoma?

Like with the symptoms and the diagnostic procedures, the treatment plan will depend on certain factors like where cancerous cells were detected and how severe the situation is. To help your body completely get rid of adenocarcinoma, your doctor may recommend one or a combination of these treatments:

Surgery

Your first line of defense in your fight against adenocarcinoma is surgery. This is very important because it will help prevent the cancer cells from getting worse and spreading to other parts of the body.

Surgery involves removing the area with the cancerous cells as well as some of the healthy tissues. Whenever possible, your doctors will choose the least invasive option to improve your healing time and reduce the odds of infection.

Chemotherapy

With chemotherapy, you’re taking drugs designed to get rid of cancer cells. These drugs are usually introduced through your veins, but pill forms exist as well.

The drugs target fast-growing cells, which are the main characteristic of cancer cells. But because your hair, skin, small intestines, and bone marrow also grow quickly, these may be affected as well.

Radiation Therapy

By undergoing radiation therapy, you’re damaging the DNA of cancerous cells. And when the DNA of a cell gets too damaged, it dies. But since this doesn’t work instantly, it’s usually paired with other treatments.

There are many techniques for doing radiation therapy. For the more advanced ones, experts use imaging techniques to target cancer cells and spare the healthy ones.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy takes on a different approach to treatment. Instead of getting rid of cancer cells, you’re improving the immune system’s response to abnormal cells.

This is done by increasing the production of cancer-fighting cells in your body and helping the immune system identify cancer cells. If effective, your immune system will now attack the cancer cells.

One of the objectives of this journey is to help the patient face the treatment difficulties and potential lifestyle changes with dignity. That’s why pain management is also a huge part of treatment. Apart from working to make your body cancer-free, your doctors may recommend pain relief options like opioid therapy, over-the-counter medications, and even psychological counseling.

Taking Care of Yourself While Undergoing Treatment

The patient’s outlook can be extremely helpful. The extremely loaded medical term adenocarcinoma may feel like a sentence, but never give up hope. Willingness to participate in treatment options and to follow expert advice is necessary in getting the best results from treatment.

Get a lot of rest. Find relaxing activities. Get into meditation. Participate in activities you enjoy. All these can help a patient feel that their life doesn’t just revolve around treatment. But before incorporating anything into the routine, get the green light from your healthcare provider first.