Pancreatic cancer is one of those types of silent cancer that will not give out major signs and symptoms until it has grown big enough, possibly spreading to other areas of the body. Since your pancreas is deep within your abdomen, you are not likely to feel a mass or lump after pressing from the outside. It is not likely to be found in routine screening tests either because up to this date there’s no screening test that’s proven to detect pancreatic cancer early enough to save patients’ lives.
We do know that there are people with a higher risk, especially those who have a family history of pancreatic cancer, smokers, obese individuals, and those continually exposed to pesticides and certain carcinogens. The symptoms of pancreatic cancer might include the following:
Abdominal and back pain
As pancreatic cancer grows, it is likely to exert pressure over nearby tissues, and might even affect nerves and highly sensitive organs such as the intestines, and this would cause abdominal pain, and sometimes back pain as well. In some cases, as pancreatic cancer grows it would press the digestive tract and cause a blockage, which also leads to colic pain and other gastrointestinal symptoms.