This booklet for patients and carers describes pancreatic cancer, its causes and symptoms. It gives detailed information on the diagnostic tests used and the stages of pancreatic cancer. It includes a section on what to ask your doctor, where to go for further information and a glossary to explain many of the terms used.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Be kept in the loop about our latest news on pancreatic cancer, the charity and our supporters.
If you are worried about pancreatic cancer, it can be an anxious time. You may have questions about what pancreatic cancer is, what the symptoms are and if you have an increased chance of getting the disease. This section will tell you about pancreatic cancer and give you some of the tools and resources to understand the disease.
If you are worried about any symptoms you are experiencing, you can track them using our symptom diary and take it to your GP. You can also see a list of questions that may be useful to ask in medical appointments to help you know if your symptoms are likely to be cancer.
This section also explains how the disease is diagnosed and some of the tests you may have to try and find out what is happening.
Finally, you can read some blogs written by patients and those who care for them, about their own experiences with pancreatic cancer.
I’m concerned, what should I ask my doctor?
If you have any of the symptoms of pancreatic cancer, this can be a frightening and confusing time. There may be many reasons for your symptoms and having tests for pancreatic cancer does not mean you have the disease.
You may be struggling to know what to ask your doctor, and how to cope while you are waiting to find out the cause of your symptoms.
Asking some of the questions listed here may help you to understand your symptoms, how they can be managed, and what happens next. There are no right or wrong questions to ask your doctor. They are used to answering all sorts of questions or signposting you to services that may be able to help.
What tests will I need to diagnose pancreatic cancer?
What other conditions are my symptoms likely to be?
What can you do to help my symptoms?
What should I do if my symptoms do not get better or get worse?
Do I need to see any other professionals or specialists?
Sources and references for this information product will be supplied on request. Please contact us quoting the Information Product number below:
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.