Awareness month highlights one of the most difficult cancers to diagnose

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign to highlight the signs and symptoms of a disease that is often diagnosed too late.

As with all cancers, detection as early as possible leads to the best chances of survival – but pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to detect.

As a result, it currently has the worst survival outcome for any of the 21 most common cancers, and around 80 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed at a point when the disease has already spread to other organs.

That is why Brian Maidment, a retired university professor from Lytham St Annes, is keen to help raise awareness and call on people to follow up symptoms as soon as they emerge.

He said: “Just over two years ago, I started having trouble with my stomach and I did what you should do - I went to the doctor and was referred for a colonoscopy.

“Something felt unusual, and I was just getting some pain and discomfort in my stomach, enough to make it worth asking questions about what was going on.

“Initially, they gave me the all-clear. I had a back operation after this, and although there were still things that bothered me a little bit about my stomach, I didn't do anything more about it.

“I did have two widely separated but deeply embarrassing moments of sudden and acute diarrhoea. Looking back now, I realise that they should have been understood as evidence of continuing problems and acted more promptly to get to talk to a doctor.

“Then basically I had a crisis because I was losing weight very fast and I had very high insulin and glucose levels, so I went into hospital and that's when they discovered it was pancreatic cancer.”

Brian’s initial digestive symptoms were similar to those of a bowel issue, however a colonoscopy or endoscopy only looks at the bowel, and not the pancreas. More than a year after first going to his GP, it was discovered in January this year that Brian had pancreatic cancer.

While regular chemotherapy at Blackpool Victoria has been deemed a success and Brian says he remains reasonably well, unfortunately his tumour is inoperable.

Even though he followed the advice to get things checked out early on, the difficulties in discovering pancreatic cancer meant that it was diagnosed too late.

Brian continued: “It was quite a long drawn-out procedure but I had actually done something about it quite early on.

“They checked for the obvious things such as stomach cancer or prostate cancer, but I know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to find. That would be my message really - if you're uncertain about it go back and follow up with your doctor.

“Particularly for illnesses that aren’t that easy to diagnose, you probably have a good sense if your body is not working all that well. I think you do have to be persistent.

“The symptoms of pancreatic cancer would normally relate to other forms of cancer, so I think that is one of the things that makes it more difficult to detect.

“I had already been to see the doctor and they were doing tests but didn't have much of an idea what it might be at that point, but it was only when the weight loss became so obvious and all my glucose levels went wrong that was obvious it was something much more serious. By that point, the doctor knew more or less right away that it might be pancreatic cancer.”

Dr Neil Smith, primary care director at Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance, said: “It can be difficult to diagnose pancreatic cancer in the early stages because symptoms may come and go, and are often similar to bowel problems or other digestive conditions.

“As with any cancer, it is more treatable the earlier it is diagnosed. Even when symptoms change or don’t seem to go away, please see your doctor.”

Main symptoms of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer may not have any symptoms, or they might be hard to spot.

Symptoms of pancreatic cancer can include:

• the whites of your eyes or your skin turn yellow (jaundice), and you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual
• loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to
• feeling tired or having no energy

Other symptoms can affect your digestion, such as:

• feeling or being sick
• diarrhoea or constipation, or other changes in your poo
• pain at the top part of your tummy and your back, which may feel worse when you're eating or lying down and better when you lean forward
• symptoms of indigestion, such as feeling bloated

For more information, visit www.nhs.uk/conditions/pancreatic-cancer