Blocked Bile Duct Pancreatic Cancer

If the pancreatic cancer is blocking your bile duct and causing jaundice you may have a stent put into the bile duct.

Blocked bile duct pancreatic cancer.

Signs include yellow skin and eyes dark colored urine and pale colored stools. If the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage treatment might work better. As the tumour enlarges. Pancreatic cancer that blocks the liver s bile duct can cause jaundice.

The bile chemicals will also build up in the body which can cause jaundice nausea vomiting and other problems. It can block the bile duct or the main pancreatic duct. This multiplies and a tumour then develops in and around the duct. The resulting tumors may block a bile duct.

Apart from cancer gallstones can also cause the gallbladder to swell if it blocks the cystic duct or bile duct. A stent for a blocked bile duct is usually put in using a procedure called an endoscopic retrograde cholangio pancreatography ercp. Having a stent put in with an ercp. When bile duct cancer does cause symptoms it s usually because a bile duct is blocked.

This stops the drainage of bile and or pancreatic fluid into the first part of the gut known as the duodenum. This may be due to the tumor obstructing the bile duct and causing liver cell destruction and scarring. This type of cancer develops from a cell which becomes cancerous in the pancreatic duct. Bile duct cancer refers to all cancers that develop within the biliary system.

Cirrhosis may develop in bile duct cancer. Cancers growing in the head of the pancreas can block the common bile duct as it passes through this part of the pancreas. Blood clots pancreatic cancer increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis dvt which is when a blood clot forms in a large vein often in the leg. Bile duct cancer cancer of the bile duct is much more rare than pancreatic cancer with just 1 000 cases per year in the uk.

Pancreatic cancers can cause a bile duct obstruction if the tumor enters. Obstruction of the bile duct can lead to infection of the bile drainage system or cholangitis. Your doctor may recommend that a plastic or metal tube stent be placed inside the bile duct to hold it open. This can cause pain and digestive problems because bile can t get into the intestine.

As with pancreatic cancer bile duct cancer generally affects the older population and is more common in men than in women. Bile duct cancer does not usually cause signs or symptoms until later in the course of the disease but sometimes symptoms can appear sooner and lead to an early diagnosis.