The pancreas is located behind the stomach and plays an important role in regulating digestion and blood sugar. If this item starts to malfunction, it can be very difficult to detect. This is because it is located deep in the abdomen.
There is a serious disease associated with the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer killed in the United States. Symptoms of pancreatic cancer are difficult to detect. As long as the tumor does not exceed the surgical site, the risk factors are obesity and smoking.
There are also warning signs that help with early detection. If you have these symptoms and your family has a history of this disease, seek medical attention immediately.
Pancreatic cancer results from the abnormal growth of cancerous cells in the pancreas. There are two types of cells in the pancreas. Exocrine cells, secrete enzymes that aid digestion, and endocrine cells, secrete hormones such as insulin and glucagon.
There are two types of pancreatic cancer that can present very differently. Exocrine pancreatic tumors account for about 94% of pancreatic cancers. and endocrine tumors of the pancreas, which account for the remaining 6% of pancreatic cancers.
Symptoms of exocrine pancreatic cancer
jaundice
This symptom is manifested by the yellowing of the eyes and skin. This is due to a buildup of bilirubin due to blockage of the common bile duct. Tumors form inside the pancreas near the common bile duct. It presses on it, causing a blockage, and when cancer spreads outside the pancreas, it quickly travels to the liver. Which in turn will cause jaundice. Before the eyes and skin turn visibly yellow, jaundice can be identified by gray or greasy stools, dark urine, and itchy skin.
Weight loss, pain, vomiting, and nausea
When this type of cancer grows, it puts pressure on other organs in the abdomen, which is often painful or makes it very difficult for food to pass, which in turn leads to nausea, vomiting, and pain that then increases. All foods. In addition, people with this cancer suffer from unexplained weight loss and poor appetite, and when it begins to metastasize, it spreads to the surrounding nervous environment, causing severe back pain.
blood clots
It often causes DVT which is identified by redness, swelling, and warmth in the large veins in the legs, as well as pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a clot travels to the lungs and causes chest pain and difficulty breathing.
Adipose tissue abnormalities
If the pancreas is functioning normally, it secretes enzymes that digest fat, and when this process is disrupted by tumors, the fat does not break down properly and begins to accumulate in strange, normal, irregular places.
Symptoms of pancreatic cancer
With this type of cancer different symptoms are identified, tumors cause excess hormones to be released into the bloodstream, and a number of different hormones can be produced depending on the type of tumor. A few of them include:
Stomach tumors
This will increase stomach acid which will lead to ulcers in the stomach which will lead to nausea, pain, loss of appetite and in more severe cases bleeding, black tar stools, anemia etc and can lead to death.
Glucagonomas
These types of tumors will produce too much glucose in your bloodstream. This can lead to high blood sugar levels and, in more serious cases, also lead to diabetes. As well as diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition. If you want to know more about glucagonoma, it would be due to the condition known as erythema necrosis migrants which is a red rash that moves from one place to another on the skin and also causes blistering and swelling.
insulinomas
These can cause the opposite effect compared to glaucoma which causes an overproduction of insulin, which leads to hypoglycemia and these symptoms can vary from as mild as weakness, confusion, fast heartbeat, and so on. Severe convulsions, fainting, and coma also.
Somatostatinomas
These medications often cause an overproduction of somatostatin, a hormone known to regulate other hormones, and symptoms are pain, jaundice, nausea, diabetes, and vomiting.
