What are the symptoms of advanced pancreatic cancer in patients

The symptoms of pancreatic cancer in the late stage are a matter of concern to the family members of patients with pancreatic cancer in the late stage. No matter which pancreatic cancer patient, they all have special symptoms before dying of cancer. So, what are the symptoms of pancreatic cancer in the late stage? Let me introduce them below.

Symptoms of advanced pancreatic cancer

1) Digestive system symptoms: Abdominal pain is a common symptom, which occurs in more than 3/4 of patients. The pain is mild at first and gradually worsens. In the early stage, the pain is widespread and difficult to locate, and is characterized by vague symptoms such as fullness, distension, dull pain, and dull pain. Patients with acute onset have abdominal cramps or dull pain in a clear location. Cancer of the head of the pancreas can cause right upper abdominal pain, and cancer of the tail of the pancreas can cause left upper abdominal pain. Severe back pain is often caused by the metastasis of the tumor along the nerve sheath to the posterior abdominal nerve plexus. The mass of pancreatic cancer can compress the posterior abdominal nerves when lying on the back, often aggravating abdominal pain. Therefore, typical pancreatic cancer pain causes pain when lying on the back, or aggravates the pain, especially at night, forcing the patient to sit up or bend forward for relief. The pain has nothing to do with diet, defecation, or gas.

In addition to upper abdominal pain, a few cases complain of pain in the left or right lower abdomen, around the umbilicus, or throughout the abdomen, or even testicular pain, which can be easily confused with other diseases. The pain can radiate to the middle back, front chest, and left shoulder blade.

The digestive system symptoms of this disease include diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, gastrointestinal bloating, nausea, etc. Nausea and vomiting may be temporary or only occur when there is abdominal pain; if the tumor erodes the stomach and intestines, it may cause vomiting blood and black stool. Pancreatic body and pancreatic tail cancer can feel irregular, very hard and fixed masses of uncertain size. 90% of patients with pancreatic head cancer may have enlarged gallbladder.

2) Systemic symptoms: Weight loss is one of the important clinical manifestations of this disease. 90% of patients have rapid and obvious weight loss. Some patients also have weight loss as the first symptom, especially patients with pancreatic tail cancer and pancreatic body cancer. The cause of weight loss may be related to factors such as decreased appetite, poor digestion and absorption, and insufficient pancreatic secretion. Jaundice is one of the main symptoms for diagnosing pancreatic cancer. Jaundice of varying degrees occurs according to the characteristics of the tumor site. Jaundice occurs 100% of the time in nipple and ampulla cancer, even in the early stages. There is no jaundice in the early stages of pancreatic body and tail cancer, but in the late stages, when the tumor spreads to the pancreatic head, or metastasizes to the common bile duct, lymph nodes, and liver, causing extrahepatic or intrahepatic bile duct obstruction, jaundice may occur. The nature of jaundice is obstructive and gradually deepens, showing dark yellow with green, accompanied by strong tea-like urine, clay stools, and itchy skin. Once jaundice appears, it often does not subside. However, in some cases, jaundice may be temporarily alleviated or subsided due to factors such as tumor inflammation and temporary edema subsidence, necrosis and shedding of cancerous tissue, and formation of bile-intestinal fistula. About 10% of pancreatic cancer patients may experience fever during the course of the disease, which may be high, low, intermittent or irregular. In addition, this disease also has symptomatic diabetes, depression, anxiety, thrombophlebitis, insomnia and other mental symptoms.

3) Metastatic symptoms: Pancreatic cancer can directly infiltrate the wall of the common bile duct, or cause obstructive jaundice due to cancer compression in the early stage; as the tumor develops, the cancer adheres to the stomach, duodenum, large intestine and inferior vena cava, or infiltrates into organs, and then infiltrates the superior mesenteric artery and portal vein, causing portal hypertension and symptoms such as ascites; cancer in the body and tail of the pancreas obviously develops into the retroperitoneum and compresses the splenic artery, often causing splenomegaly and esophageal varices; the cancer extends backward, compressing or eroding the celiac plexus, causing low back pain, and occasionally complicated by pancreatitis; bone metastasis of cancer can cause severe and continuous pain; metastasis to the lungs and mediastinum can cause chest pain, cough, dyspnea and other symptoms; bile stasis or metastasis to the liver can cause liver enlargement; clavicle, axillary or inguinal lymph nodes can also swell and harden due to cancer metastasis.

Extended reading: What pancreatic cancer patients can eat is:

(1) Eat a light, easily digestible, low-fat diet.

(2) Foods that enhance immunity and have anti-pancreatic cancer effects, such as soft-shelled turtle, tortoise, sturgeon, shark, mackerel, shad, snake, yam, green beans, shiitake mushrooms, and jujube.

(3) Foods with anti-cancer and analgesic effects, such as shark, seahorse, sea bass, walnut, malt, leek, and bitter melon.

(4) Anti-infection foods: grass carp, knife fish, turtle, wild duck meat, water snake, mung bean sprouts, olives, black plums, mung beans, red beans, and bitter melon.

(5) Cereals (rice, flour), lean pork, chicken, fish, shrimp, eggs, soy products, vegetables, fruits, etc.