Pancreatic Cancer: Complications

The following are the most important diseases or complications that may be contributed to by pancreatic cancer (pancreatic cancer):

Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).

  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Malnutrition [about 80% of all patients].

Circulatory system (I00-I99)

  • Venous thromboembolism* (VTE) – association between the occurrence of VTE and malignancies is referred to as Trousseau syndrome.

Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (M00-M99).

  • Sarcopenia – age-associated excessive loss of muscle mass and strength and functional decline (here: tumor-related) Note: Sarcopenia can be found in as few as 30-65% of patients with a normal body mass index (BMI) between 18.55 and 24.9 kg/m2 body surface area [KOF] and 16-67% of patients with a BMI > 25 kg/m2 KOF.

Neoplasms – tumor diseases (C00-D48).

Metastasis occurs mainly to adjacent organs:

  • Duodenum (duodenum).
  • Colon (large intestine)
  • Stomach
  • Spleen

Furthermore, hematogenous metastasis – development of daughter tumors via the bloodstream – may occur in the following organs:

  • Bone
  • Liver (more than 50% of cases)
  • Lungs

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).

  • Anorexia – no desire for food at all and despite having had nothing or hardly anything to eat for hours or days.
  • Chronic inflammation (inflammation).
  • Chronic pain
  • Cachexia (emaciation; very severe emaciation).
  • Suicidality (suicidal tendency)

Prognostic factors

  • Malnutrition – effects on the:
    • Quality of life
    • Rate of nosocomial infections (hospital-acquired infections).
    • Tolerability of chemotherapy – thus also on the survival rate.
  • Venous thromboembolism* (VTE) – particularly frequently and often early affects patients with ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas → worsening prognosis for progression-free as well as overall survival.
  • Detection of circulating tumor DNA with mutated KRAS (mutKRAS ctDNA) is a negative prognostic indicator (for more information, see Laboratory Diagnostics).

* Dislodgement of a blood clot (thrombus) or embolus within the bloodstream, with subsequent displacement of a vessel part.