Cancer of the pancreas is usually bad news, but since it's been mentioned, I'll summarize it here. The ONLY good news is that it’s uncommon. There are about 8000 cases each year ( out of about 135,000 total ) in the UK, but unlike many commoner cancers, about the same number also die from it each year.
Pancreatic cancer is often a “silent cancer” because there are usually no symptoms in the early stages. Early symptoms are often vague, unrecognised, and be dismissed by patients and doctors alike.
Symptoms can include:
• Painless jaundice (yellow skin/eyes, dark urine)
• Significant and unexplained weight loss
• New onset of significant persistent abdominal pain
• New-onset diabetes NOT associated with weight gain
ALL of these can have other causes, and there is no reliable diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer, so it tends not to be diagnosed until it is advanced.
Risk factors include smoking ( 1/5 ), alcohol abuse and chronic pancreatitis, diabetes, stomach ulcer, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Because it is - fortunately – a rare cancer, and diet is such a complicated matter, we don’t know what dietary factors, such as red meat, may be linked to its cause. A large study ( EPIC = European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and nutrition ) may give us the answer in the future.
