What causes pancreatic cancer?

The pancreas contains cells that make digestive enzymes and hormones. Cancer can begin when changes in a cell’s growth-control systems allow it to multiply abnormally and avoid normal repair or removal. Some people inherit gene changes, including BRCA-related changes, that affect DNA repair and may increase risk. Other factors can include tobacco exposure, long-term inflammation of the pancreas, diabetes, excess body weight, and family history. These associations do not identify the cause in one individual, and many people with risk factors never develop pancreatic cancer.

Share your family history and any history of pancreatic inflammation with a clinician. Ask whether genetic counselling is suitable, particularly when several relatives have had pancreatic, breast, ovarian, prostate, or bowel cancer. Avoid tobacco, and seek support if stopping is difficult. A clinician can also review diabetes or digestive symptoms and decide whether examination or further testing is needed.

Book an appointment for persistent upper-abdominal or back pain, jaundice, dark urine, pale stools, unexplained weight loss, nausea, or a new change in blood sugar. Seek urgent care for severe pain with repeated vomiting, confusion, fever, or rapidly worsening yellowing of the skin. These symptoms can arise from several conditions, so assessment is needed to find the cause.

Ask what might explain your symptoms, whether your family history warrants genetic counselling, and which tests are appropriate. If a scan or biopsy is proposed, ask what question it is intended to answer and when results will be reviewed.