Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer - the most common type of pancreatic cancer is malignant pancreatic cancer, with less common hormonally active or inactive neuroendocrine or carcinoid tumours and other, mainly cystic, pancreatic tumours.

The main characteristic of pancreatic cancer is that it can develop almost without symptoms for a very long time.

When symptoms are already present (abdominal-back pain, weight loss, loss of appetite, jaundice, recurrent deep vein thrombosis), the picture is usually of a very advanced disease.

Perhaps a lucky exception might be the Pancreasin the main part of the common Bile ductssmall tumours adjacent to the bile duct, which cause jaundice (squeeze the bile duct) relatively early, so they can be detected earlier.

The hormonally active Pancreastumours, despite their small size, can cause quite intense symptoms, caused by the hormonally active substances they produce.