HEALTH: Warning as study finds common complaint could be early sign of deadly cancer

Pancreatic Cancer UK the charity urges anyone with jaundice, the yellowing of skin or eyes, should go to A&E straight away

A Com­mon com­plaint could be an ear­ly sign of dead­ly can­cer, a study has warned.

Patients who have suf­fered with gall­stones are more like­ly to then be diag­nosed with pan­cre­at­ic duc­tal ade­no­car­ci­no­ma (PDAC).

New research found these peo­ple were six times more like­ly to devel­op the aggres­sive cancer.

It could be a red flag patients may be diag­nosed with­in the year if they have gall­stone disease.

PDAC is the most com­mon type of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, mak­ing up more than 90 per cent of cases.

It is often fatal because it is usu­al­ly found when it is in the late stages.

Mar­i­an­na Papa­george, MD, lead researcher on the study and research fel­low at Boston Med­ical Cen­ter, said: “Pan­cre­at­ic can­cer can be dif­fi­cult to diag­nose and then chances of sur­vival are slim.

“Our find­ings sug­gest that gall­stone dis­ease may be a way to bet­ter diag­nose this type of can­cer – mean­ing we could save more lives.

“Gall­stone dis­ease does not cause pan­cre­at­ic can­cer but under­stand­ing its asso­ci­a­tion with PDAC can help com­bat the high mor­tal­i­ty rate with pan­cre­at­ic can­cer by pro­vid­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty for ear­li­er diag­no­sis and treatment.

“It is such a ter­ri­ble dis­ease, and sur­vival is so low.

“Peo­ple present at such advanced stages, so any­thing we can do to try to diag­nose peo­ple ear­li­er and make sure that they’re get­ting cura­tive treat­ment is crucial.

“This might be a key to bet­ter under­stand­ing next steps in screen­ing, man­age­ment and ear­li­er diagnosis.”

Ear­li­er this year we revealed almost a third of peo­ple ignore dead­ly signs of cancer.

There are four key symp­toms of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer which should­n’t be dis­missed, Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer UK has warned.

Experts have said it’s impor­tant to seek help as soon as pos­si­ble as pan­cre­at­ic can­cer is often diag­nosed too late.

Key symp­toms to look out for are back pain, indi­ges­tion, stom­ach pain and weight loss.

If you have suf­fered with any of these for more than four weeks, you must go to your GP.

Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer UK the char­i­ty urges any­one with jaun­dice, the yel­low­ing of skin or eyes, should go to A&E straight away.

Diana Jupp, CEO of Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer UK, said: “It is huge­ly wor­ry­ing to hear that so many peo­ple would put off seek­ing help for so long.

“Pan­cre­at­ic can­cer has not gone away because of Covid-19 and I would urge any­one with per­sis­tent, unex­plained symp­toms to use the NHS.

“There is no time to wait with pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. Thou­sands of peo­ple a year, still reel­ing from hear­ing the word can­cer, are told it’s too late, that noth­ing can be done for them. That must stop.

“We do not want peo­ple to pan­ic if they have some or all of these symp­toms, because most peo­ple who do will not have pan­cre­at­ic cancer.

“But it is absolute­ly vital that peo­ple learn more about this dis­ease, talk to their loved ones, and help us end the cul­ture of silence around the dead­liest com­mon can­cer in the UK.”

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