Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis
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If you have been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, or have been battling pancreatic cancer for some time and are exploring your treatment options, you are not alone. This can be a confusing and overwhelming time. However, you can find innovative options, hope, and compassionate care at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA).
CTCA offers a whole-person, patient-centered approach to pancreatic cancer treatment. Here, a multidisciplinary care team will empower you with information, listen to your concerns, and provide you with advanced options to fight pancreatic cancer. Your care team will work with you to develop an individualized pancreatic cancer treatment plan tailored to your specific needs.
Diagnostic Tests, Tools, & Procedures
To diagnose pancreatic cancer and plan your treatment, your CTCA doctor may use any number of the following diagnostic tests, tools, and procedures:
- Health history – To determine your health now and in the past
- Physical exam – To check for jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), abdominal swelling, gallbladder enlargement, etc.
- Blood, stool, and urine tests – To check for billirubin, which will show up in these tests if your bile duct is blocked. A high level of billirubin often suggests pancreatic cancer.
- Biopsy – Removal of a small amount of tissue from the pancreas. This is an important procedure to diagnose pancreatic cancer.
- Ultrasound – Uses sound wave technology to provide echoes of your internal organs, including the pancreas. The echoes that tumors produce are different than those of healthy tissues.
- CT scan (computerized tomography) – Uses X-ray images to show your internal organs. In particular, CT scans present detailed images of soft tissue organs.
- MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) – Uses radiofrequency waves to create detailed cross-sectional images of the pancreas.
- Angiogram – An X-ray of the blood vessels to reveal how or if blood flow in a particular area is blocked by a tumor. Dye is injected into an artery to outline the blood vessels before the images are taken.
- Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) – Dye is used to highlight bile ducts in the pancreas. A small tube is lowered down the throat and into the intestinal track. Your doctor may choose to take a biopsy in addition to the images.
- Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC) – Dye is injected into the liver to closely examine bile ducts possibly altered by the cancer.
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