Pancreatic cancer

What is it?

The pancreas is an organ in the top part of your tummy, behind the stomach. It helps digest food and makes hormones such as insulin. Pancreatic cancer usually starts in the cells that make the digestive juices.

It is not very common under 40, and the risk is higher over 65. It is most often found between 65 and 74. Smoking, long-term diabetes and long-term inflammation of the pancreas (chronic pancreatitis) raise the risk. It is also more likely if others in your family have had pancreatic cancer, or with some inherited conditions. Stopping smoking, losing weight if you need to, eating less red and processed meat and drinking less alcohol can lower your chances.

The first signs

Early pancreatic cancer causes few or no signs, and later signs are often vague. Because the pancreas lies behind other organs, a doctor cannot see or feel a tumour at a routine check-up.

• yellow skin or whites of the eyes (jaundice), often with itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo;
• a poor appetite, or losing weight without trying;
• feeling tired or low in energy;
• pain at the top of the tummy that spreads to the back, worse when eating or lying down;
• feeling or being sick, diarrhoea or constipation, or bloating and indigestion.

How doctors find out

If your family doctor thinks you could have pancreatic cancer, they send you to a specialist. You have blood tests and scans: ultrasound (sometimes from inside the body, on a thin, bendy tube called an endoscope), CT, PET or MRI. You may also have a biopsy (a small sample of cells), a small operation to look inside your tummy (laparoscopy), or ERCP, where an endoscope goes through your mouth into the gut and X-rays are taken.

Results can take several weeks. A specialist then explains what they mean; it helps to bring someone with you. The tests show how big the cancer is and whether it has spread, so your team can plan treatment with you. A specialist nurse is your main contact during and after treatment.

Current treatment

Surgery + chemo if operable, otherwise chemotherapy

Will it get worse?

It depends on where the cancer is in the pancreas, how big it is, whether it has spread, and your general health. Pancreatic cancer is often found late and spreads quickly, so it can be hard to treat. In about half of people it has already spread to distant parts of the body when it is found. Even after surgery removes the whole tumour, it often comes back.

When it cannot be cured, treatment aims to hold the cancer back, ease the symptoms and help you live longer. A palliative care team helps with cancer symptoms, pain and worry.

Medicines: what helps, and what to watch for

Chemotherapy uses medicines to kill cancer cells. It can shrink the cancer before surgery, lower the chance of it coming back after surgery, or help control symptoms when surgery is not possible. It is often a combination of different medicines. Targeted medicines and immunotherapy may work for only a small number of pancreatic cancers; tests can help predict your response to immunotherapy. In August 2026 a new targeted medicine against changes in the KRAS gene, which are found in 9 out of 10 pancreatic cancers, was approved in the United States for advanced cancer after earlier treatment.

Good to know:

• Chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer can have serious side effects. Common ones are tiredness, feeling sick, a sore mouth, diarrhoea, and numbness or tingling in the hands or feet;
• Anti-sickness medicines can help with feeling or being sick;

Eating and digestion: what helps

Many people with pancreatic cancer lose weight, and some develop diabetes. The cancer can make it hard to digest food: your pancreas can make fewer enzymes, or they cannot reach where they are needed. Enzyme capsules (pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy, PERT), taken when you eat, help you digest; when the dose is right, symptoms should get better.

• you do not need a special diet, and there are no foods to avoid;
• weight loss, indigestion, bloating, wind and changes in your poo can be signs that food is not being digested well;
• nutritional supplements can help if you have lost weight or find eating hard;

Surgery, for some people

If the cancer is found early and has not spread, surgery may remove it. The surgeon removes part of the pancreas, or in a few cases all of it, and sometimes nearby organs. For a tumour in the head of the pancreas this is called a Whipple operation. Recovery can take a long time.

If the cancer cannot be removed, an operation to bypass a blockage, or a stent placed through an endoscope to keep the bile duct or small intestine open, can help with symptoms. These operations can help with jaundice and feeling or being sick, but they do not cure the cancer. Radiotherapy is not often used, but it can be given with chemotherapy or to ease symptoms.

Is there a cure?

Rarely. Removing the whole tumour with surgery gives the best chance of living a long time, but many people find out too late for that. Because the options are limited, many experts think everyone with pancreatic cancer, even at an early stage, should think about joining a clinical trial.

See the 1,215 trials you can join

Median survival

About 8 to 11 months with chemotherapy, once it has spread

Measured in: First-line treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer, in two trials (342 and 861 patients)

Sources

Written in plain words by Frontlight from these pages:

1. MedlinePlus: Pancreatic Cancer
2. NCI PDQ: Pancreatic Cancer Treatment (PDQ) – Patient Version
3. NCI SEER: Cancer Stat Facts: Pancreatic Cancer
4. NHS: Pancreatic cancer – What is pancreatic cancer?
5. NHS: Pancreatic cancer – Causes
6. NCI PDQ: Pancreatic Cancer Treatment (PDQ) – Health Professional Version
7. NHS: Pancreatic cancer – Symptoms
8. NHS: Pancreatic cancer – Tests and next steps
9. NHS: Pancreatic cancer – Treatment
10. NHS: Chemotherapy – Side effects
11. Cancer Research UK (charity): Living with pancreatic cancer
12. Pancreatic Cancer UK (charity): Diet and pancreatic cancer