Dr. Esteban Kosak 
Pancreatic cancer is very severe as it is not that common and accounts for 7% of all cancer-related deaths in men and women.
Cancer is when cells grow without control, affecting the tissue it grows in. Cancer cells can also spread to other surrounding organs and even organs far away. The pancreas is a gland that produces hormones essential for the metabolism of sugar (glucose) in the body. The organ also has enzymes that are very important for the digestion of all types of foods.
When cancer occurs in the pancreas, it can disturb any of those functions or even both, depending on the size. Almost the total of times cancer appears is in the part of the pancreas that produces digestive enzymes.
Pancreatic cancer habitually first spreads to nearby lymph nodes. Afterward, it goes to the liver. Sometimes it can go to the lungs or surrounding organs like the stomach, intestines, or colon. At the time of the diagnosis, cancer already spread in half the patients. This is a terrible outlook for the future of the patient as the treatment gets complicated.
This disease is tough to diagnose, as it doesn’t usually present symptoms when it first appears. That fact contributes to the high mortality it causes with the low quantity of people who get ill. Most patients don’t survive after six months, and after a year, only 28% do. A way to reduce cancer death numbers is to educate patients on risk factors to prevent the disease.
Actually, in the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer patients, in general, are a high-risk group because the treatment decreases their immunological system’s function. This makes them more vulnerable to the disease’s effects, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As vaccines begin to be available, they’re eligible for a covid 19 vaccine. That makes them less susceptible to suffering the disease and the severe consequences it can have on them.
This tool is a Pancreatic Cancer symptoms Checker. It gathers the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for the disease.
Pancreatic cancer is a disease that doesn’t have early symptoms, which makes it harder to diagnose. A common symptom of pancreatic cancer is abdominal pain, although this alone is non-specific. When it sums up to other symptoms like weight loss, nausea, fatigue, diarrhea, yellowing of the skin and eyes, or itchy skin, it can indicate pancreatic disease. These symptoms alone cannot diagnose pancreatic cancer as there are other diseases like acute pancreatitis or gallbladder stones that could have similar symptoms.
For an accurate diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, doctors need to make different types of tests. First, blood tests can show if there is an increase in pancreatic injury markers. Then there are a lot of imaging tests such as MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds. In these, doctors look for an abnormality in the organ’s tissue. For a definitive diagnosis, a biopsy directly from the tumor can indicate if it is cancer and what type of cancer it is. Therefore, the latter is what can help doctors to diagnose and choose treatment specific for the patient.
The tool gathers the most important questions about pancreatic cancer. It aims to identify if someone’s symptoms could be because of this disease or if they are at a higher risk of having pancreatic cancer.
Keep in mind that several diseases, including many that aren’t cancer, can mimic these symptoms. Consequently, it is just an estimation. Using the tool is free and would only take a few minutes.
- Question of
Do you have less than 60 years?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you consider yourself African American?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have smoked at least one pack of cigarettes for forty years? Or do you have smoked two packs of cigarettes every day for 20 years? Or do you have smoked three packs of cigarettes, or its equivalent for thirteen years?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Have you never smoked cigarettes? Or, did you smoke cigarettes but you quit more than ten years ago?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have obesity? (please search in google the “BMI formula,” and with your weight and height, it will calculate that diagnosis)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have at least five years with a diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus type II?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have more than 50 years? Do you lack close family members (parents, siblings, grandparents) diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus? And, do you have less than three years with a recent diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus? (Click yes only if your answer is yes to these three questions)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Was this an inherited type of chronic pancreatitis?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Was this chronic pancreatitis diagnosis related to heavy alcohol consumption?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Have doctors detected BRCA-2 mutations in your family? You can know this by asking your family members about genetic studies on their breast or ovarian cancer diagnoses.
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with any of these diseases? Click yes if you have hereditary pancreatitis, multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN), hereditary nonpolyposis rectal cancer (HNPCC), familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), Gardner syndrome, familial atypical multiple mole melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome, or von Hippel-Lindau syndrome (VHL).
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Are you having appetite loss, malaise, nausea, or fatigue?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been losing weight unintentionally in the last months?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you abdominal pain in the middle of the abdomen?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Is this abdominal pain worse after eating? Is this abdominal pain worse when lying flat? Is the abdominal pain mostly affecting you at night? (Only click yes if your answer is yes to two out of three questions)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Is this abdominal pain in the middle of the abdomen also affecting the mid-or-lower back?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been experiencing for more than two weeks diarrhea and malodorous, fatty stools? Fatty stools tend to float on the water sink.
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have generalized itchy skin? Do you have brown or overall dark urine? Do you have whitish stools? Or, do you have yellowing of the eyes or skin? (Only click yes if you have one of these symptoms but without abdominal pain)
- Yes
- No
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