4 Early Warning Signs of Pancreatic Cancer: Pain Locations

I will explain the 4 early symptoms of pancreatic cancer that your body sends, including the location of the pain. Pancreatic cancer is considered a difficult cancer to treat. This is because it is often detected late. Although pancreatic cancer is known to be difficult to treat, if you are aware of the signals your body sends for pancreatic cancer, you can respond quickly. I will tell you the 4 signals of pancreatic cancer right away.

Early Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer

Cancers like breast cancer, stomach cancer, and colon cancer have a high early detection rate through palpable lumps or endoscopy, but the pancreas is located so deep inside our bodies that it is not easy to notice.

Therefore, it is particularly important not to miss the signals from your body that may indicate pancreatic cancer. If you experience the 4 symptoms I will explain, you should consider whether it could be pancreatic cancer.

1. Blood Sugar

One of the important early signals that can appear when you have pancreatic cancer is an increase in blood sugar. If you haven't had diabetes before and there's no family history of diabetes, but you suddenly develop diabetes, you should consider whether it might be pancreatic cancer causing it, rather than just simple diabetes.

Also, if you are already a diabetic, and your blood sugar, which was well-controlled with no change in your diet, suddenly becomes difficult to control, you should also consider checking your pancreas. To do this, you can discuss with your doctor and get an abdominal CT scan.

As many of you know, one of the main roles of the pancreas is insulin secretion, so if a tumor develops in the pancreas, it can lead to diabetes, where blood sugar control becomes difficult.

2. Dyspepsia

The second important signal is dyspepsia. The pancreas has two important functions in the body: one is blood sugar control, and the other is digestion. The pancreas plays a crucial role in digesting food by secreting digestive enzymes, so if a tumor develops in the pancreas and these digestive enzymes are not produced, digestive function naturally decreases.

If the fat-digesting enzyme lipase is not properly produced, you may experience indigestion and diarrhea after eating fatty foods. Also, if the protein-digesting enzyme protease is deficient, you may experience belching and indigestion, especially after eating meat.

Naturally, your appetite decreases as well. In fact, dyspepsia is a common symptom in daily life, so you might just take an antacid and think it will go away. However, if dyspepsia is caused by pancreatic cancer, the body continuously fails to supply the necessary fats and proteins, leading to muscle loss and easy weight loss.

So, if you continue to experience indigestion, loss of appetite, and weight loss, it could be a signal from your pancreas.

3. Jaundice

Another signal that can appear when you have pancreatic cancer is jaundice. The pancreas consists of the head, body, and tail, and the symptoms that appear can vary depending on the location of the tumor. The head of the pancreas is located behind the stomach and is located on the bile duct passage.

Bile is produced in the liver and then passes through the bile duct to the duodenum. If there is a tumor in the head of the pancreas, it can block this path where bile exits.

As a result, bilirubin, a pigment component of bile, cannot be excreted and accumulates in the body, causing the whites of the eyes and skin to turn yellow.

Jaundice is a visible symptom, so you can notice it yourself, or sometimes someone else may point it out to you. When such a visible symptom appears, it can sometimes be a clue that leads to the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

4. Pain

The fourth symptom is pain. Pain is a symptom that appears more when pancreatic cancer has progressed rather than in the early stages. Because the pancreas is located behind the stomach, pain tends to occur in the epigastric region, above the belly button and below the sternum. You might simply think it's gastritis or enteritis and ignore it, thinking it will go away on its own.

However, pain caused by pancreatic cancer does not simply go away on its own. Instead, the symptoms become more frequent and the intensity of the pain increases. The head of the pancreas is located deep in the epigastric region, while the body and tail extend to the left. Therefore, in addition to epigastric pain, upper left abdominal pain and back pain below the shoulder blades and along both sides of the spine can occur, resulting in front and back pain.

If pain reaches this stage, the prognosis may be worse. So, if you experience persistent discomfort or abdominal pain, don't delay and visit a hospital for a proper examination.

In Conclusion

The outcome can vary greatly depending on whether it is detected early and treated well. Therefore, being aware of the symptoms that may appear when pancreatic cancer develops can also help with early detection of pancreatic cancer.