Your pancreas is a gland located deep in your abdomen behind your stomach and in front of your spine. Your liver, intestine, and other organs surround your pancreas. Your pancreas is about six inches long and is shaped like a flat pear. The widest part of your pancreas is the head, the middle section is the body, and the thinnest part is the tail.
Your pancreas makes insulin and other hormones. These hormones enter your bloodstream and travel throughout your body to regulate the use or storage of the energy that comes from food. For example, insulin helps control the amount of glucose your cells absorb from your blood stream.
Your pancreas also makes pancreatic juices containing enzymes that help digest food. Your pancreas releases these juices into a system of ducts leading to your common bile duct. The common bile duct empties into the duodenum, the first section of your small intestine.
Pancreatic Cancer Risk Factors
No one knows the exact causes of pancreatic cancer. However, people with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop pancreatic cancer. A risk factor is anything that increases a person's chance of developing a disease.
Pancreatic cancer risk factors include:
Age -- The likelihood of developing pancreatic cancer increases with age. Most pancreatic cancers occur in people over the age of 60.
Smoking -- Cigarette smokers are two or three times more likely than non-smokers to develop pancreatic cancer.
Diabetes -- Pancreatic cancer occurs more often in people who have diabetes than in people who do not.
Being male -- More men than women are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Being African American -- African Americans are more likely than Asians, Latinos, or Caucasians to get pancreatic cancer.
Family history -- The risk for developing pancreatic cancer triples if a person's mother, father, sister, or brother had the disease. Also, a family history of colon or ovarian cancer increases the risk of pancreatic cancer.
Chronic pancreatitis -- Chronic pancreatitis is a painful prolonged inflammation of the pancreas. Some evidence suggests that chronic pancreatitis may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.
Chemical exposure and lifestyle -- Other studies suggest that exposure to certain chemicals in the workplace or eating foods high in fat may increase the chance of getting pancreatic cancer.
Most people with known risk factors do not get pancreatic cancer. On the other hand, many who do get the disease have none of these factors. If you think you may be at risk for pancreatic cancer should, speak with your doctor.
Symptoms
Pancreatic cancer is sometimes called a "silent disease" because early pancreatic cancer often does not cause symptoms. But, as the cancer grows, symptoms may include:
- Pain in the upper abdomen or upper back
- Yellow skin and eyes, and dark urine from jaundice
- Weakness
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea and vomiting
- Weight loss
These symptoms are not sure signs of pancreatic cancer. Other problems could also cause these symptoms. Only a doctor can diagnose the cause of a person's symptoms. If you have these symptoms, see your doctor so that your doctor can identify and treat any problem as early as possible.
The content of this posting is based on information from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
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Deborah White, MD, MBA
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