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Signs and symptoms

In th early stages pancreatic cancer does not often show an obvious signs or symptoms. As such pancreatic cancer is often referred to a silent cancer. This said, symptoms can present themselves, especially as the cancer starts to grow. Symptoms do depend on the type of pancreatic cancer and will vary for each person. Here are some of the common symtoms to look out for.

Pancreatic cancer is often referred to as a “silent cancer” because it is thought that the early symptoms can be vague and unrecognised. Pancreatic cancer symptoms however can present themselves early in many cases. Here are some of the most common symptoms to look out for:

Signs and symptoms Pancreatic cancer often doesn’t cause any signs or symptoms in the early stages. This can make it hard to diagnose early. But as the cancer grows, it may start to cause symptoms. These will depend on the type of pancreatic cancer and where it is in the pancreas. The symptoms and how bad they are can vary for each person.

It’s important to remember that symptoms described here can be caused by more common things, such as indigestion or heartburn. They can also be caused by conditions such as pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas), gallstones, irritable bowel syndrome, or hepatitis (inflammation of the liver).

These symptoms don’t necessarily mean that someone has pancreatic cancer. But if you have any symptoms that you’re worried about it’s important that you see your GP.

Classic pancreatic cancer symptoms can include: Painless jaundice (yellow skin/eyes, dark urine, itching). Weight loss which is significant and unexplained Abdominal pain which is new-onset and significant Other possible symptoms of pancreatic cancer: Pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen that radiates to the back which is new. This is significant and can be persistent but also intermittent, this pain or discomfort can vary between patients. Back pain Diabetes which is new-onset and not associated with weight gain Vague indigestion (dyspepsia) or abdominal discomfort (not responding to prescribed medication) Loss of appetite Nausea and vomiting Pain when eating Steatorrhea (fatty stools that are often pale and smell foul) Not everyone will have all of these symptoms. For example, those who have a tumour in the body or tail of the pancreas are unlikely to have painless jaundice. All of these symptoms can have other causes, and there is not yet a reliable and easy test for pancreatic cancer.

Video Player 00:0001:43 Explanation of the symptoms: Pain in the abdomen and upper back

Approximately 70 per cent of patients with pancreatic cancer go to the doctor initially due to pain. This pain is often described as beginning in the stomach area and radiating around to the upper back (just above where a woman’s bra strap would be).

Generally the reason for the pain is because of the tumour pressing against your abdomen and spine.

Jaundice

30% of patients will have yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes, jaundice, when they first go to the doctors. This is related to the tumour blocking the bile duct which leads to a build-up of bile in the liver.

Jaundice may be more obvious in the whites of the eyes and bad jaundice can cause itching of the skin.

Depression

Many of our patients or relatives have said that they have experienced mood changes before being diagnosed.

Mild to severe depression can often present itself in the early stages of pancreatic cancer. This is why if someone who has never suffered from a severe bout of depression before should express their concerns to their GP. It can often highlight a medical problem in the very early stages.

Bowel changes

A tumour in the pancreas can cause bowel disturbances which means you do not absorb your food properly. This will result in regular, large bowel movements of pale and smelly stool. This can also cause weight loss.

Diabetes

Pancreatic cancer can cause diabetes. A pancreatic tumour can interfere with insulin production in the pancreas which can lead to new onset diabetes.

You may have diabetes if you have low energy, pass more urine than normal and feel extremely thirsty.

If you regularly experience ONE OR MORE of these symptoms which are NOT NORMAL FOR YOU, DO NOT IGNORE THEM, contact your GP straight away.

Are you worried about symptoms you may be having? If so, downloading our symptoms diary may help you.

Keep a symptoms diary: Keeping track of any symptoms you may be experiencing can be useful when discussing them with your GP. Click here for the Pancreatic Cancer Action symptoms diary.

Beautiful documentation

Material is a theme for Hugo, a fast and flexible static site generator. It is built using Google’s material design guidelines, fully responsive, optimized for touch and pointer devices as well as all sorts of screen sizes.

Material Screenshot

Material is very lightweight – it is built from scratch using Javascript and CSS that weighs less than 30kb (minified, gzipped and excluding Google Fonts and Analytics). Yet, it is highly customizable and degrades gracefully in older browsers.

Quick start

Install with git:

git clone git@github.com:digitalcraftsman/hugo-material-docs.git themes/hugo-material-docs

Features

Beautiful, readable and very user-friendly design based on Google’s material design guidelines, packed in a full responsive template with a well-defined and easily customizable color palette, great typography, as well as a beautiful search interface and footer.
Well-tested and optimized Javascript and CSS including a cross-browser fixed/sticky header, a drawer that even works without Javascript using the checkbox hack with fallbacks, responsive tables that scroll when the screen is too small and well-defined print styles.
Extra configuration options like a project logo, links to the authors GitHub and Twitter accounts and display of the amount of stars the project has on GitHub.
Web application capability on iOS – when the page is saved to the homescreen, it behaves and looks like a native application.

Beautiful love it love

Material Screenshot

Quick start

Install with git:

git clone git@github.com:digitalcraftsman/hugo-material-docs.git themes/hugo-material-docs

Features

Beautiful, readable and very user-friendly design based on Google’s material design guidelines, packed in a full responsive template with a well-defined and easily customizable color palette, great typography, as well as a beautiful search interface and footer.
Well-tested and optimized Javascript and CSS including a cross-browser fixed/sticky header, a drawer that even works without Javascript using the checkbox hack with fallbacks, responsive tables that scroll when the screen is too small and well-defined print styles.
Extra configuration options like a project logo, links to the authors GitHub and Twitter accounts and display of the amount of stars the project has on GitHub.
Web application capability on iOS – when the page is saved to the homescreen, it behaves and looks like a native application.

See the getting started guide for instructions how to get it up and running.

Acknowledgements

Last but not least a big thank you to Martin Donath. He created the original Material theme for Hugo’s companion MkDocs. This port wouldn’t be possible without him.

Furthermore, thanks to Steve Francia for creating Hugo and the awesome community around the project.