The páncreas are an extended organ of approximately 15 cm. in length that has leaf form and are located of the left side, in a bend of the thin intestine, behind the stomach, in front of the spine and to a side of bazo.
This organ although does not comprise of the alimentary canal, participates actively in the digestion and in the processing of certain nutrimentos, since it produces chemical substances called enzymes, that are necessary to disturb very small particle foods, so that they can be absorbed by the thin intestine and they are gotten up to the sanguineous torrent to be able to arrive at all the cells and organs from the body.
The enzymes take place in very small glands and they move until the first part of the intestine. Most important they are the amylase, that it plays an important role in the digestion of the carbohydrates, the tripsina that is in charge to digest proteins and lipasa that digests fats.
The páncreas also produce insulin and glucagón, that is hormones that help to control and to regulate the sugar levels in blood and to use and to store the obtained energy of foods.
The glucose is a power plant for the body and its level stays thanks to the insulin stable. If the páncreas do not work suitably and they do not produce the insulin as it had, is developed one of the most serious diseases and complicated than they exist at the moment: the diabetes.
The digestive juice is produced by the cells exocrinas of the páncreas and the hormones are produced by the cells endocrinas. Approximately 95% of the cancers of the páncreas begin in cells exocrinas.