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.