Symptoms and Signs

Pancreatic cancer is sometimes called a "silent killer" because early pancreatic cancer often does not cause symptoms, and the later symptoms are usually non-specific 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 and is relieved by leaning forward
• loss of appetite (anorexia), and/or nausea and vomiting
• significant weight loss
• painless jaundice (yellow skin/eyes, dark urine) when a cancer of the head of the pancreas (about 60% of cases) obstructs the common bile duct as it runs through the pancreas. This may also cause pale-colored stool and steatorrhea.

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, is sometimes associated with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. Each year in the United States, about 42,470 individuals are diagnosed with this condition and 35,240 die from the disease. In Europe more than 60,000 are diagnosed each year.

Depending on the extent of the cancer at the time of diagnosis, the prognosis is generally regarded as poor; less than 5 percent of those diagnosed are still alive five years after diagnosis. Complete remission is still extremely rare.

About 95% of exocrine pancreatic cancers are adenocarcinomas. The remaining 5% include adenosquamous carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, and giant cell carcinomas. Exocrine pancreatic cancers are far more common than endocrine pancreatic cancers (islet cell carcinomas), which make up about 1% of total cases.