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Digestive cancers · free patient guide
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
GI & hepatobiliary clinic
What it is
The pancreas does two jobs, digestion and blood sugar control, and disease here disrupts both. That is why nutrition and enzyme replacement are part of treatment rather than an afterthought.
Whether surgery is possible depends on the tumour's relationship to nearby blood vessels. This assessment needs specific imaging and specific expertise, and getting it right early changes the whole plan.
Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect early because the pancreas sits deep in the abdomen and early symptoms are vague. New-onset diabetes in an older adult who is losing weight is an under-recognised warning sign.
Warning signs worth acting on
- Painless jaundice, yellowing of the eyes without pain
- New diabetes in an adult over 50 who is also losing weight
- Persistent upper abdominal pain going through to the back
- Unexplained weight loss with loss of appetite
- Pale, greasy stools that are difficult to flush
- Unexplained blood clots
How it is diagnosed
- Pancreatic-protocol CT, ordinary abdominal imaging is not enough
- Endoscopic ultrasound with biopsy
- MRI and specific bile-duct imaging where needed
- Assessment of resectability against blood-vessel involvement
Germline testing is offered more readily in pancreatic cancer than in many others, because inherited variants are found in a meaningful proportion and change both treatment options and family screening. Tumour profiling is considered in advanced disease.
Is it inherited?
An identifiable proportion is hereditary. Testing is offered more broadly here than in most cancers, because the result affects both your options and your relatives' screening.
Genetic counselling & family risk →
Prevention & early detection
There is no established population screening. New diabetes with weight loss in an older adult is worth investigating rather than simply treating.
Treatment options
What may form part of a plan
Which of these apply to you depends on your stage, your pathology, your other health and what you want from treatment. That decision belongs at a tumour board, not on a website.
Surgery
Operability assessment and planning here; the operation at the appropriate partner centre.
Chemotherapy
Drug treatment that acts on rapidly dividing cells throughout the body.
Radiotherapy
Targeted radiation to a defined area, planned in millimetres.
Targeted therapy
Medicines matched to a specific alteration found in your tumour.
Clinical trials
Most Indian patients never learn a trial exists, because nobody is looking.
Conservative management & active surveillance
Sometimes the right decision is to watch carefully and treat nothing yet.
At KPCIRC
The pathway for this disease
- Resectability assessment before anything else is decided
- Biliary drainage coordination where jaundice is present
- Pancreatic enzyme replacement and nutrition support from the start
- Pain management planned early, this is a disease where pain is often undertreated
- Germline testing discussion and cascade planning
Support that matters most here
Take this with you
Questions to ask your own doctor
These work wherever you are treated. Print the page or take a photograph of this list.
- Is the tumour removable, and who has assessed that?
- Do I need enzyme replacement to digest food?
- Has germline testing been discussed?
- What is the plan for pain control?
This page is not an emergency service. Severe breathlessness, chest pain, uncontrolled bleeding, a high fever during chemotherapy, or a sudden change in alertness means going to your nearest emergency department now, not reading further.