What are the warning signs of pancreatic cancer?

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Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is a disease that is often discovered when it is too advanced to be cured. The reason that this cancer is so hard to detect is that it either does not cause symptoms in its early stages, or it causes symptoms that are easily mistaken for other diagnoses.

The pancreas lies in the upper abdomen behind the stomach and colon, and next to the spleen, bile ducts and upper intestine. Symptoms related to pancreatic cancer are often related to its spread to these other digestive organs. Common symptoms include upper abdominal pain (suspicious if the pain is steady and radiates to the back), nausea, weight loss and loss of appetite, as well as itching and jaundice (both from obstruction of the bile duct). In rare cases, patients may even suffer from clots in veins near the surface of the skin or from depression.

Of all the symptoms mentioned, the one that most often directs the search for pancreatic cancer is jaundice. Tumors in the head of the pancreas -- the area through which the bile duct passes -- grow and obstruct this duct. Interestingly, it is these tumors that are often the easiest for surgeons to remove because of their position in the pancreatic head. Thus, pancreatic cancer patients whose main symptom is jaundice may be a lucky because their cancer may catch the attention of doctors while it is still in a potentially curable stage.