Pancreatic Cancer
Known Symptoms
- Early-stage: Often asymptomatic or nonspecific (e.g., vague abdominal discomfort, malaise).
- Locally advanced/metastatic:
- Obstructive jaundice (dark urine, pale stools, pruritus) due to bile duct compression.
- Unexplained weight loss, anorexia, new-onset diabetes.
- Epigastric pain radiating to the back (suggesting retroperitoneal invasion).
- Courvoisier’s sign (palpable gallbladder without tenderness).
- Red flags: Thrombophlebitis migrans (Trousseau’s syndrome). Metastatic signs (e.g., ascites, supraclavicular lymphadenopathy).
Known Causes
- Imaging: Multiphasic CT abdomen (pancreatic protocol): Gold standard for detection, staging, and resectability assessment.
- MRI/MRCP: Better characterization of cystic lesions and biliary anatomy.
EUS (endoscopic ultrasound): High sensitivity for small tumors, allows fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy. - Tumor markers: CA19-9 (elevated in ∼80% of cases; used for monitoring, not screening).
- Histopathology: FNA or core biopsy (via EUS or CT-guided) for confirmation.
- Staging: TNM system; categorized as resectable, borderline resectable, locally advanced, or metastatic.
Care
- Imaging: Multiphasic CT abdomen (pancreatic protocol): Gold standard for detection, staging, and resectability assessment.
- MRI/MRCP: Better characterization of cystic lesions and biliary anatomy.
EUS (endoscopic ultrasound): High sensitivity for small tumors, allows fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy. - Tumor markers: CA19-9 (elevated in ∼80% of cases; used for monitoring, not screening).
- Histopathology: FNA or core biopsy (via EUS or CT-guided) for confirmation.
- Staging: TNM system; categorized as resectable, borderline resectable, locally advanced, or metastatic.
- Early-stage: Often asymptomatic or nonspecific (e.g., vague abdominal discomfort, malaise).
- Locally advanced/metastatic:
- Obstructive jaundice (dark urine, pale stools, pruritus) due to bile duct compression.
- Unexplained weight loss, anorexia, new-onset diabetes.
- Epigastric pain radiating to the back (suggesting retroperitoneal invasion).
- Courvoisier’s sign (palpable gallbladder without tenderness).
- Red flags: Thrombophlebitis migrans (Trousseau’s syndrome). Metastatic signs (e.g., ascites, supraclavicular lymphadenopathy).
Featured Specialities
Our Speciality Services
Oncology
Our Cancer Center offers comprehensive, multidisciplinary cancer care within a quaternary hospital setting, ensuring that every form of therapy and supportive service is available under one roof. With dedicated departments in Medical, Surgical, Radiation and Hemato-Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, Genomics and Palliative Care, our experienced teams deliver evidence-based, personalised treatment through advanced technologies such as linear accelerators, PET-CT, NGS-based precision oncology, CAR-T therapy and bone marrow transplantation. Every patient’s case is reviewed by a multi-specialty tumour board to design an individualised, multimodality treatment plan, supported by outpatient daycare chemotherapy, advanced radiotherapy techniques, minimally invasive surgeries and targeted nuclear therapies. From early detection and screening to rehabilitation, survivorship and end-of-life care, we focus not only on treating cancer but on delivering compassionate, coordinated and patient-centred care at every stage.
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