• Cigarette smoking
• Obesity and lack of physical activity
• Chronic infection of the pancreas (pancreatitis, hepatitis B and C)
• Hereditary risk factors
• Pancreatic cysts

As the pancreas is deep inside the body, early tumours can’t be seen or felt by during routine physical exams. People usually have no symptoms until the cancer has become very large or has already spread to other organs.

Pancreatic cancer is a “silent” disease because the symptoms are often vague and can be easy to ignore. The symptoms are:

• Abdominal pain or pain in mid back
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss which is unexplained
• Digestion issues like such as feeling full quickly when eating, bloating, burping or lots of wind
• Change in bowel habits
• Jaundice ( yellow eyes and skin)

Tests for Detecting Pancreatic Cancer

Screening tests help to identify cancers before they produce symptoms . Screening tests for pancreatic cancer are reserved for those who have a strong family history of pancreatic cancer or with a known genetic syndrome that increases their risk

The two most common tests used are an endoscopic ultrasound or MRI. These tests are not used to screen the general public.

For patients who present with symptoms, the following tests are used to confirm diagnosis:
1. Imaging : USG abdomen, endoscopic USG , MRI, PET CT scan etc
2. Blood tests
3. Biopsy

Treatment
Treatment is based on the stage and nature of disease.

The best option might include a combination of more than one type of treatment which include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy.

Surgery : Surgery for pancreatic cancer may be used to either offer potential cure or to relieve symptoms. When the patient has been detected very early, it’s possible to remove all the cancer with a goal of potential cure.

If tests show that the cancer is too widespread to be removed completely, surgery is done to relieve symptoms or to prevent certain complications like a blocked bile duct or intestine, but the goal is not to cure the cancer.

Chemotherapy : Administration of medicines to shrink and control growth of tumour is called chemotherapy. This can be done before or after surgery depending on stage and extent of the tumour.

Radiotherapy: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays (or particles) to kill cancer cells. For pancreatic cancer, it may be given after surgery to try to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.

This is generally given along with chemotherapy, which is together known as chemoradiation or chemoradiotherapy.

For larger tumours, where surgery might be possible , radiation given along with chemotherapy before surgery can shrink the tumour to allow complete removal Radiation is sometimes used to help relieve symptoms (such as pain) in people with advanced cancers or in people who aren’t healthy enough for other treatments like surgery.

Immunotherapy : The use of medicines to stimulate a person’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively is called immunotherapy.

Despite all treatments, cure rates of this type of cancer are very low. Adopting a healthy lifestyle helps to reduce the risk. One should be alert for any new symptoms and report them at the earliest to your doctor. (Dr. Kanchan Kaur is an Associate Director & Senior Consultant, Breast and Oncoplastic Surgeon at Medanta – The Medicity in Gurgaon, India.

She did her undergraduate training from GMC Jammu and went on to do her masters of surgery from the same college. She then went to the UK to train as a breast specialist. She returned to India in 2010 and has helped set up the breast service at Medanta She is part of a team which is involved in introducing in India, a new concept from Germany of training blind girls to perform breast examinations. These girls undergo internship under her. Dr. Kanchan is very passionate about her work and wants Indian women to be aware about the risks that breast cancer poses. She is actively involved in public awareness programmes in Delhi and it’s neighbouring towns. Early detection of breast cancer and counselling and emotional support for patients and their carers is of special interest to her.)