Pancreatic cancer, do you know how hidden it is? The "cunning" thing about this cancer is that many people are already in the middle and late stages when they find out they have pancreatic cancer, and it is very difficult to treat.
Many people did not notice those inconspicuous early symptoms at the beginning, which led to the delay and deterioration of the disease.
Have you ever thought that those minor discomforts in your body may be warning signs?
Many patients ignore the early symptoms and wait until the disease becomes serious before seeing a doctor. Pancreatic cancer is a typical example. It is difficult to be detected in the early stages and often quietly harms the body until it is exposed in the late stages, missing the best time for treatment.
Sudden weight loss in the early stages
Have you suddenly felt that you have lost a lot of weight, and your weight has dropped rapidly even though you did not deliberately lose weight?
Some people may think that if they eat less or exercise more, losing weight is just a small matter, but in fact, this may be an early sign of pancreatic cancer.
There was a patient, a middle-aged woman, who was busy with work and had a relatively regular life. She began to feel that her weight was slowly decreasing, especially within a few months, she obviously felt that her clothes were a little loose.
She didn't care, thinking that it was just caused by irregular diet, until one day, she was found to have a tumor in the pancreas during a physical examination. I told her that early pancreatic cancer is often accompanied by a significant decrease in weight.
In fact, the pancreas plays an important role in digestion. If there is a problem with the pancreas, especially in the early stages of pancreatic cancer, it will affect the secretion of digestive enzymes, which means that food cannot be completely digested, resulting in incomplete absorption of nutrients, and the result is that weight will gradually decrease.
In fact, pancreatic cancer causes weight loss not because of loss of appetite, but because the digestive system is affected. The pancreas does not secrete enough digestive fluid, so food cannot be completely digested and absorbed, and even fat cannot be completely decomposed.
This process is often not very noticeable. You may still eat, but you will find that you are getting thinner and thinner, and your body gradually loses strength.
Many people ignore this point and think that they are just busy or stressed. They don't realize the problem until the condition becomes serious.
Strange abdominal pain and back pain
There is a patient who has been accustomed to back pain due to long-term physical labor. However, recently, he found that his back pain has become more and more serious, even when he sleeps at night, so serious that he can't sleep well.
At first, he thought it was back strain caused by long-term lifting of heavy objects, so he didn't care. However, after examination, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
The characteristics of abdominal and back pain in pancreatic cancer are difficult to associate with cancer, especially for some patients who have been engaged in physical labor for a long time. Their back pain is often linked to daily strain. In the early stage of pancreatic cancer, the tumor may compress the nerves around the pancreas, which in turn causes persistent pain in the abdomen and back.
Can you imagine it? This pain is often ignored because it is not as obvious as stomach pain, nor as regular as joint pain. Instead, it appears and disappears from time to time, especially after meals.
Moreover, this back pain is not limited to the waist. As the disease progresses, the pain may spread to the upper abdomen and spine.
For some manual laborers, this pain may be mistaken for muscle strain or a sign of physical fatigue, but in fact, it may be a "help" signal sent by cancer.
Difficult to digest food or sudden onset of diabetes
Some people ignore a particularly important early symptom: the connection between pancreatic cancer and diabetes.
Under normal circumstances, our pancreas secretes insulin to help control blood sugar, but if a tumor occurs in the pancreas, the secretion of insulin will be affected, which may cause blood sugar to rise and then cause diabetes.
A male patient in his fifties, who had no history of diabetes, suddenly felt thirsty, urinated frequently, and lost weight in recent months.
To make matters worse, he found that he often felt abdominal discomfort and poor digestion after eating.
At first, he thought it was indigestion caused by the fast pace of life and irregular diet, but when he went to the hospital for a check-up, he found that his blood sugar was significantly elevated, diagnosed him with diabetes, and found that he already had a mass in his pancreas.
One of the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer is that the tumor compresses or erodes the islet cells, which in turn affects the secretion of insulin.
At this time, blood sugar is out of control, and the patient may have symptoms of diabetes, or even sudden diabetes. For patients without a history of diabetes, sudden diabetes should be enough to cause sufficient vigilance.
If you start to feel thirsty, frequent urination, and weight loss for no reason, this may not just be accidental, and the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer should not be ignored.
The subtle connection between pancreatic cancer and indigestion
Indigestion is a symptom experienced by many people. Occasionally, if you eat too much or eat irregularly, everyone will feel stomach discomfort.
However, if some people have indigestion for a long time and the symptoms gradually worsen, this may be an early sign of pancreatic cancer.
There was a female patient who often neglected her eating habits due to her busy work. She occasionally had symptoms of bloating and indigestion. She didn't care much at first, and even thought that she was under a lot of pressure and ate too late at night, which caused stomach discomfort. However, her symptoms lasted for several months, not only did not ease, but became more and more serious, until she began to feel persistent stomach discomfort. Finally, after examination, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
In fact, the impact of pancreatic cancer on digestion is very direct. The pancreas is responsible for secreting digestive enzymes to help us break down the nutrients in food. If there is a problem with the pancreas, the digestive function will inevitably be affected. At this time, the food stays in the gastrointestinal tract for too long, causing symptoms of indigestion such as bloating, nausea, and vomiting.
Indigestion may seem to be just a minor problem, but it may be a warning from pancreatic cancer to your body, especially if you don't eat too much or eat too late.
Skin color changes may be another danger sign
Many people think that yellow skin is only related to the liver, but early symptoms of pancreatic cancer can also manifest as yellow skin, especially when pancreatic tumors block the bile ducts, bile cannot be discharged smoothly, causing bilirubin to accumulate in the blood, causing jaundice.
An elderly male patient found that he had mild yellow skin during the examination, and he thought it was a problem with liver function.
However, after a detailed examination, I found that he had pancreatic cancer and the tumor compressed the bile duct, causing jaundice.
In fact, jaundice is a common symptom of pancreatic cancer, especially in the late stage, but some patients will show it in the early stage.
This is also one of the symptoms that many patients ignore, because jaundice does not appear suddenly, it may gradually worsen.
The hidden nature of pancreatic cancer makes it one of the most unprepared cancers.
When you notice that your skin or eyes are turning yellow, and there is no other obvious reason for this phenomenon, pancreatic cancer is a possibility that cannot be ignored.
These early symptoms may seem ordinary and may even be mistaken for other common problems. However, they are often silent warnings from pancreatic cancer.
If you or someone close to you has these unusual changes, you may want to go to the hospital for a comprehensive checkup. Early detection and early treatment are the best way to defeat pancreatic cancer.
