FAQ

What Is Pancreatic Cancer?

Cancer occurs with the transformation of normal cells of the pancreas to begin abnormal growth. There are different types of cancer that can occur in the various cells of the pancreas. The most common is adenocarcinoma, or ductal adenocarcinoma, which accounts for 90% of pancreatic cancer. Most of the information available for pancreatic cancer refers to this type. There are various other types of tumors from the different cell types of the pancreas, and each tumor type behaves somewhat differently. Tumors can also arise from the endocrine cells of the pancreas - neuroendocrine tumors. These tumors can be nonfunctioning or sometimes release hormones or chemicals that cause symptoms or illnesses, such as insulin-releasing tumors that can cause very low blood sugar levels.

What are the Symptoms?

Although symptoms may be vague or could be similar to other problems unrelated to the pancreas, it is very important to report these or any other symptoms to your doctor.

• Abdominal discomfort in the mid- to- upper abdomen that often radiates to the back
• New onset diabetes or worsening blood sugar levels
• Loss of appetite and unintentional weight loss, or weight loss that seems easier than it should be
• Unexplained Fatigue
• Darkening of urine and lightening of stool
• Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes)
• Itching
• Nausea and vomiting

What Are the Risk Factors?

Risk factors you may be able to control:

Knowledge is power. You can lower your risk for pancreatic cancer by changing unhealthy lifestyle behaviors you can control, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and being overweight. If the risks cannot be controlled, be aware of the risks you may have, so early diagnosis may be more likely.

• Smoking, and tobacco use raises risk considerably.
• Obesity (BMI over 30 not due to muscle mass); presently, or with prior history, possibly with loss from Bariatric surgery)
• Chronic pancreatitis, sometimes associated with alcohol use, sometimes without known cause, or pancreatitis that runs in families increases risk of development of pancreatic cancer. All patients with chronic pancreatitis should be monitored by a gastroenterologist.

Risk factors that you cannot control, but knowledge of increased risk may aid early detection:

• Gender: Men develop pancreatic cancer slightly more often than women.
• Age: The risk of developing it increases with age.
• Race: African Americans are more likely to get pancreatic cancer than other racial groups.

Precancerous pancreatic cysts can be monitored through the Erlanger Pancreatic Cyst Surveillance Program, conducted with the advanced Gastroenterology program for periodic testing.

Family history of pancreas or other cancers, such as breast, colorectal or personal history of certain cancers, or any new confirmed pancreatic cancer should prompt high risk genetics evaluation.

Some of the genetic associations to pancreatic cancer include BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations which also can cause hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, and Lynch syndrome, an inherited disorder associated with colon cancer. The Erlanger High Risk & Cancer Genetics Program offers counseling, review of your family history for cancer as it may relate to other family members, testing, monitoring of available screening and updated testing as available.

How Is Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosed?

Each patient is unique with their path to discovery of their pancreatic cancer. Testing differs for patients depending on whether they have testing to look into the cause of symptoms, or sometimes abnormal findings are identified in the pancreas for testing done for other reasons. Once a pancreatic mass is discovered, the patient may undergo testing with a special CT scan to specially take closer look at the pancreas and the surrounding blood vessels and other structures. MRI to look specifically at the pancreas and its ducts may be indicated, and endoscopic ultrasound that allows the tumor to be biopsied, while getting more information on location of the tumor next to blood vessels.