This cancer is deadly and has the lowest survival rate among the 22 most commonly diagnosed cancers. Every year we remind ourselves of the threat, remembering the death of Anna Przybylska or Patrick Swayze. It’s time to get to know the enemy well, because the time of his detection is the key element in the fight against the disease. What are the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer and can we protect ourselves against it?
- Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in about 3. people in Poland
- Most patients see a doctor only when the cancer is well developed
- The symptoms of pancreatic cancer are non-specific and easy to ignore or attribute to other ailments
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Pancreatic cancer develops extremely insidiously, with non-specific symptoms. Some patients experience its symptoms for several months before diagnosis. Unfortunately, they are very rarely associated with cancer. This is the main factor behind the high mortality rate for this cancer. About 60 percent. patients see a doctor because of symptoms that are a sign of distant metastases or cancer cachexia. In Poland, 3 thousand. people hear an unsuccessful diagnosis. The most common symptoms reported by patients are abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite, weight loss. Often, the first symptom of pancreatic cancer that prompts you to see a doctor is an onset jaundice.
Early symptoms of pancreatic cancer
In 2021, researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom analyzed the symptoms of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000-2017 very carefully. Thanks to a very wide database, they managed to create typology of nonspecific symptoms that occurred in patients even a year before proper diagnosis. Scientists distinguished as many as 23 symptoms occurring in the course of the most common type of pancreatic cancer. Belong to them:
- yellowing of the skin
- bleeding in the stomach
- bleeding in the gut
- swallowing problems
- diarrhea,
- changes in bowel rhythm,
- vomiting,
- indigestion,
- abdominal pain,
- weight loss
- constipation
- the presence of fat in the stool
- abdominal swelling
- nausea,
- flatulence
- heartburn,
- fever,
- tiredness,
- loss of appetite
- itchy skin
- back pain,
- excessive thirst
- dark urine.
The researchers said their study was not perfect because they were unable to identify which symptoms appeared very early in the disease and which only appeared after the disease had developed and not yet diagnosed. However, the compilation of the above list has established a very important element in accelerating the diagnosis of this insidious disease.
The rest of the text is below the video.
Early detection of changes means a chance of survival. Dr. Weiqi Liao points out that a family doctor may be helpful in detecting disturbing changes, provided that both the physician and the patient are aware of the early symptoms. Preventive examinations and visits to the doctor are an indispensable element of caring for health. It is thanks to the awareness of the threat that we can timely discover inconspicuous but disturbing changes and signals that the body sends. Each doctor, seeing a few nonspecific symptoms in his patient, should urgently undertake further diagnostics. In pancreatic cancer, time is a key factor.
In addition to non-specific symptoms discovered by British researchers, there are a number of early symptoms of pancreatic cancer that have already been described in the literature. These include: weakness, discomfort and pain in the abdomen, newly diagnosed diabetes or thrombophlebitis, discolored stools, rapid feeling of fullness and pain radiating to the back or shoulder blade.
Diagnosis and risk factors of pancreatic cancer
The first primary method of detecting disturbing changes is ztaking a thorough medical history – including family history. Although the etiology of pancreatic cancer is not fully understood, it is estimated that about 10 percent illnesses are associated with a genetic predisposition. Blood tests are helpful in detecting abnormalities: morphology and liver function markers. Most often, imaging tests, including ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, are used to confirm the presence of changes. Confirmation of the diagnosis is made on the basis of the histopathological examination of the collected tissues.
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to self-compassion – a trend that has developed very strongly in the United States, but is still in its infancy in Poland. What is it and how does it affect our daily functioning? You will hear about this and many other issues related to self-compassion in the latest episode of our podcast.