Pancreatic Cancer: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment
سرطان البنكرياس
Pancreatic cancer can cause jaundice, weight loss or upper-abdominal pain, but early symptoms may be absent. Treatment depends on tumour type, location, resectability and spread. Symptoms require assessment without assuming they automatically indicate cancer.
What is Pancreatic Cancer?
Most pancreatic cancers arise in the digestive-secretory part of the pancreas and differ from neuroendocrine tumours. Establishing the type matters because management and course differ. Nutrition and pain support accompany tumour-directed treatment.
Related reading: Is cancer hereditary, and when should a family consider genetic counselling?.
Symptoms
Possible signs include yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, pale stools, itching, back-radiating pain and appetite or weight loss. New diabetes with other concerning features may warrant assessment; most people with diabetes do not have pancreatic cancer.
Causes
Cancer develops through cellular changes and may be associated with smoking, chronic pancreatitis or inherited factors. An individual cause is not always known. Diabetes or back pain alone is not evidence of pancreatic cancer.
Risk factors
Risk factors include older age, smoking, obesity, chronic pancreatitis, certain inherited changes and family history. Discuss familial cancers to identify appropriate testing; family history alone cannot select a targeted cancer medicine.
Diagnosis
CT or MRI may be used, with endoscopic ultrasound and tissue sampling when appropriate. Blood tests assess liver and overall health. Staging evaluates spread and major vessels. Blood tumour markers alone cannot confirm or exclude the disease.
Treatment
Resectable disease may be treated surgically; the operation depends on location, so Whipple surgery is not for everyone. Chemotherapy may precede or follow surgery or treat advanced disease. Selected molecular findings can guide particular therapies, alongside relief of jaundice, pain and poor digestion.
Complications
Tumours may obstruct the bile duct or stomach outlet, affect digestion and glucose control, and increase clot risk. Nutrition and supportive-care specialists help manage the burden. Outlook depends on stage, type, response and overall health.
Prevention
Avoiding smoking, managing weight and addressing associated disease can lower general risks without guaranteeing prevention. Routine screening is not recommended for average-risk people. Particular inherited syndromes or family histories may warrant specialist surveillance after counselling.
When to see a doctor
New jaundice needs prompt assessment, urgently if accompanied by fever or severe pain. Persistent unexplained weight loss or digestive symptoms should be reviewed. Sudden painful leg swelling or severe breathlessness needs urgent care for possible thrombosis.