Pancreatic Cancer Symptoms

Pancreatic cancer symptoms are often not found early — a reason why the pancreatic cancer survival rate is low. Learn about pancreatic cancer causes and risks.

Located behind your stomach and in front of your spine, your pancreas is a large gland that produces digestive enzymes and hormones (insulin and glucagon) to regulate blood sugar. It’s an organ that’s crucial for good health.

When a malignancy develops in the pancreas, the consequences can be deadly, especially if the cancer isn’t found early, when treatment has the best chance of success. Unfortunately, that’s frequently the case: Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in American adults, according to the National Cancer Institute.

There are several reasons for delays in diagnosing the cancer. Because the pancreas sits deep inside your body, a doctor can’t feel small tumors during a physical exam. In addition, it can take a long time for pancreatic cancer symptoms to develop and become obvious. Early pancreatic cancer symptoms may be mild and dismissed as indigestion.

What’s more, pancreatic cancer may have metastasized to other areas of your body before the disease is discovered, making treatment more difficult.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Pancreatitis Symptoms

Although researchers are learning much about the cancer and how to treat it, rates of pancreatic cancer continue to rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points out.

That’s why it’s important to learn about pancreatic cancer symptoms and understand potential pancreatic cancer causes.

Pancreatic cancer symptoms

Pancreatic cancer symptoms include:

• Pain in your abdomen or back
• Unexplained weight loss
• Jaundice (yellowing of your skin or eyes)
• Itchy skin
• Darker than normal urine, which may become brown
• Light-colored or greasy appearing stools
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)

Many symptoms associated with pancreatic cancer, like back or stomach pain and a change in appetite, have multiple explanations. Usually, they do not indicate cancer.

But if you have any unexplained health changes that might be a sign of pancreatic cancer, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network advises talking to your doctor.

More potential pancreatic cancer symptoms

The American Cancer Society points out pancreatic cancer symptoms can also include gallbladder enlargement, if the cancer blocks bile ducts. Your doctor may discover that problem as a lump under the right side of your ribcage during a check-up, or it may show up on imaging tests.

Pancreatic cancer may cause your liver to enlarge, especially if the cancer has spread to that organ. Sometimes, a physician can feel a larger-than-normal liver just below your ribcage during a physical, or a CT scan or other imagining test may discover the enlarged liver.

Occasionally, the first sign pancreatic cancer is a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) — a blood clot in a large vein, usually a leg. Symptoms can include pain, swelling, and warmth.

Without treatment, the clot may travel to your lungs, causing a potentially life-threatening pulmonary embolism. But most blood clots are not associate with this cancer.

Another relatively rare pancreatic cancer symptom is type 2 diabetes caused by pancreatic cancer destroying insulin-making cells. Symptoms can include frequent urination and unusual thirst.

But pancreatic cancer is more likely to cause minor changes in blood sugar levels — not enough to result in diabetes symptoms but enough to register as abnormally high on blood glucose tests.

Understanding the pancreatic cancer survival rate

The American Cancer Society provides survival statistics for pancreatic cancer based on the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) database maintained by the National Cancer Institute. The SEER information documents the pancreatic cancer survival rate over five years.

The five-year survival rate is highest, 44 percent, when the cancer hasn’t spread beyond your pancreas. When the malignancy spreads to nearby lymph nodes or other structures, the survival rate is 12 percent. If the cancer metastasizes to other parts of your body, the survival rate drops to three percent.

People recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, however, have a better outlook because treatments are improving.

What’s more, your age, overall health, whether the tumor can be removed surgically, and how well your cancer responds to treatment all play a role in the success of pancreatic cancer treatment.

Take charge of pancreatic risk factors

The causes of pancreatic cancer are not clear in most cases. There are known factors risk factors, however, and strategies that might help prevent the cancer or find it early.

For example, if you develop pancreatitis, follow all medical treatment carefully and work with your doctor to avoid chronic pancreatitis, one of several potential pancreatic cancer causes.

The National Cancer Institute points out lifestyle changes can lower two established risk factors, smoking and being overweight.

If your family history includes several cases of pancreatic cancer, that doesn’t mean you are doomed to develop the disease, but it does increase your risk. Make sure your doctor knows your family history, and discuss whether more frequent screenings, including imaging tests, are right for you.

Ask about genetic testing if you have a family history of genetic syndromes that increase cancer risk, including:

• A BRCA2 gene mutation
• Lynch syndrome (a type of colorectal cancer associated with pancreatic cancer)
• A familial atypical mole-malignant melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome

If you test positive, your doctor may suggest adding imaging or other tests to your regular check-ups to look for early signs of pancreatic cancer.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: What Causes Diabetes?