Pancreatic Cancer - Signs and Symptoms

Signs and Symptoms

Early pancreatic cancer often does not cause symptoms, and the later symptoms are usually nonspecific and varied. Therefore, pancreatic cancer is often not diagnosed until it is advanced. Common symptoms include:

• Pain in the upper abdomen that typically radiates to the back (seen in carcinoma of the body or tail of the pancreas)
• Loss of appetite (anorexia) or nausea and vomiting
• Significant weight loss (cachexia)
• Painless jaundice (yellow tint to whites of eyes or yellowish skin in serious cases, possibly in combination with darkened urine) when a cancer of the head of the pancreas (75% of cases) obstructs the common bile duct as it runs through the pancreas. This may also cause pale-colored stool and steatorrhea. The jaundice may be associated with itching as the salt from excess bile can cause skin irritation.
• Trousseau sign, in which blood clots form spontaneously in the portal blood vessels, the deep veins of the extremities, or the superficial veins anywhere on the body, may be associated with pancreatic cancer.
• Diabetes mellitus, or elevated blood sugar levels. Many patients with pancreatic cancer develop diabetes months to even years before they are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, suggesting new onset diabetes in an elderly individual may be an early warning sign of pancreatic cancer.
• Clinical depression has been reported in association with pancreatic cancer, sometimes presenting before the cancer is diagnosed. However, the mechanism for this association is not known.
• Symptoms of pancreatic cancer metastasis. Typically, pancreatic cancer first metastasizes to regional lymph nodes, and later to the liver or to the peritoneal cavity and, rarely, to the lungs; it rarely metastasizes to bone or brain.