What percentage of tumors in pancreas are cancerous?

Pancreatic Cancer

Nearly 30,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States every year. The pancreas is a gland located in the abdomen that produces several hormones, including insulin. Pancreatic secretions aid the digestion of food and help the body to use glucose.

This cancer usually occurs in people over the age of 65 and is rarely seen in persons under 45. It strikes men and women equally. Like so many other cancers, the earlier it’s caught, the greater the chances of survival. However, there is no screening test available for pancreatic cancer.

Symptoms

The symptoms of pancreatic cancer are often vague or not apparent, making the disease difficult to diagnose. Frequently, it reaches an advanced stage before symptoms occur. The most common are:

Abdominal pain
Loss of appetite, nausea or weight loss
Jaundice (a yellowish discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes)
Back pain
Feeling of weakness

An individual’s risk of getting pancreatic cancer increases if he or she:

Uses tobacco
Eats a high fat diet
Has chronic pancreatitis
Has a hereditary form of pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer
Works with metals or chemicals
Is African American

Diagnosis

The exocrine part of the pancreas (which produces the digestive fluids that help break down fats, proteins and carbohydrates) is where 95 percent of all pancreatic cancers, or adenocarcinomas, begin. The other five percent grow in the endocrine section, where hormones (like insulin) are made. Identifying the type of tumor is important since they behave, develop and respond to treatment differently.

Pancreatic cancer’s symptoms are like those of many other pancreatic conditions. That’s why it’s important to be seen by an expert, who may use any of the following tests for an accurate diagnosis:

Basic blood tests and a lab test called CA19-9
Ultrasound. Though not a definitive test for tumors, it is a good way to find gallstones or cysts in the pancreas.
Computed tomography (CT) scan. These three-dimensional X-rays are accurate tests for cancer. A CT scan is also used to guide a biopsy needle exactly to the tumor to take a tissue sample for lab analysis.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of soft tissue. A special type, magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), can find blockages in the pancreatic and bile ducts.
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). This minimally invasive procedure is considered the gold standard for pancreatic and biliary diagnosis, but there is a two to five percent risk of causing pancreatitis.

Currently, there are no effective screening tests to detect pancreatic cancer. It is often difficult for a doctor to distinguish between pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) and pancreatic cancer. Both conditions present similar symptoms and may look the same on radiology scans. Most patients require exploratory surgery to establish a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and determine the extent of the disease.

Treatment

Treatment for pancreatic cancer includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination, depending on the stage of the disease.

Exploratory surgery is performed through an incision in the abdomen (laparotomy). This allows the surgeon to assess the extent of the disease. If the tumor can be removed, a Whipple procedure (pancreatoduodenectomy) is used, which can be very effective and results in few complications. Only five to 20% of patients have tumors that can be surgically removed.

Laparoscopy, a less invasive procedure, is sometimes done. The surgeon inserts a laparoscope (flexible telescope with a camera attached) into the abdomen to see how far the disease has progressed.

Chemotherapy or radiation may benefit the patient if the tumor cannot be removed. Neither can be done until the patient has sufficiently recovered from the exploratory surgery, which usually takes about six weeks.

What percentage of tumors in pancreas are cancerous?

ON THIS PAGE: You will find information about the estimated number of people who will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. You will also read general information on surviving the disease. Remember, survival rates depend on several factors, and no 2 people with cancer are the same. Use the menu to see other pages.

Every person is different, with different factors influencing their risk of being diagnosed with this cancer and the chance of recovery after a diagnosis. It is important to talk with your doctor about any questions you have around the general statistics provided below and what they may mean for you individually. The original sources for these statistics are provided at the bottom of this page.

How many people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer?

In 2023, an estimated 64,050 adults (33,130 men and 30,920 women) in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The disease accounts for approximately 3% of all cancers. Pancreatic cancer is the eighth most common cancer in women and the tenth most common cancer in men. In both men and women, the number of new cases of pancreatic cancer have gone up by around 1% each year since the late 1990s. Worldwide, an estimated 495,773 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020.

It is estimated that 50,550 deaths (26,620 men and 23,930 women) from this disease will occur in the United States in 2023. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Pancreatic cancer accounts for 7% of all cancer deaths. Since the late 1990s, the death rate has very slowly increased by 0.2% year in men and stayed steady in women. In 2020, an estimated 466,003 people worldwide died from pancreatic cancer.

As explained in the Introduction, more than 90% of pancreatic cancers are exocrine adenocarcinoma.

What is the survival rate for pancreatic cancer?

There are different types of statistics that can help doctors evaluate a person’s chance of recovery from pancreatic cancer. These are called survival statistics. A specific type of survival statistic is called the relative survival rate. It is often used to predict how having cancer may affect life expectancy. Relative survival rate looks at how likely people with pancreatic cancer are to survive for a certain amount of time after their initial diagnosis or start of treatment compared to the expected survival of similar people without this cancer.

Example: Here is an example to help explain what a relative survival rate means. Please note this is only an example and not specific to this type of cancer. Let’s assume that the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific type of cancer is 90%. “Percent” means how many out of 100. Imagine there are 1,000 people without cancer, and based on their age and other characteristics, you expect 900 of the 1,000 to be alive in 5 years. Also imagine there are another 1,000 people similar in age and other characteristics as the first 1,000, but they all have the specific type of cancer that has a 5-year survival rate of 90%. This means it is expected that 810 of the people with the specific cancer (90% of 900) will be alive in 5 years.

It is important to remember that statistics on the survival rates for people with pancreatic cancer are only an estimate. They cannot tell an individual person if cancer will or will not shorten their life. Instead, these statistics describe trends in groups of people previously diagnosed with the same disease, including specific stages of the disease.

The 5-year relative survival rate for pancreatic cancer in the United States is 12%.

The survival rates for pancreatic cancer vary based on several factors. These include the stage of cancer, a person’s age and general health, and how well the treatment plan works. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) often have a better prognosis, which is the chance of recovery, both in terms of the chance of a cure and in terms of life expectancy if not cured.

Pancreatic cancer is often difficult to diagnose. This is because there are no validated, specific screening tests that can easily and reliably find early-stage pancreatic cancer in people who do not show symptoms. Furthermore, people with pancreatic cancer often do not have clearly identified symptoms in the early stages of the disease. This means it is often not found until later stages when the cancer can no longer be removed with surgery and/or has spread from the pancreas to other parts of the body.

If the cancer is detected at an early stage when surgical removal of the tumor is possible, the 5-year relative survival rate is 44%. About 12% of people are diagnosed at this stage. If the cancer has spread to surrounding tissues or organs, the 5-year relative survival rate is 15%. For the 52% of people who are diagnosed after the cancer has spread to a distant part of the body, the 5-year relative survival rate is 3%.

Experts measure relative survival rate statistics for pancreatic cancer every 5 years. This means the estimate may not reflect the results of advancements in how pancreatic cancer is diagnosed or treated from the last 5 years. Talk with your doctor if you have any questions about this information. Learn more about understanding statistics.

Statistics adapted from the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) publication, Cancer Facts & Figures 2023, the ACS website, the International Agency for Research on Cancer website, and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. (All sources accessed March 2023.)

The next section in this guide is Medical Illustrations. It offers drawings of body parts often affected by pancreatic cancer. Use the menu to choose a different section to read in this guide.

Survival for pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. Your outlook (prognosis) is better if your cancer hasn’t spread and you can have surgery to remove it.

Survival depends on many factors. No one can tell you exactly how long you will live.

Below are general statistics based on large groups of people. Remember, they can’t tell you what will happen in your individual case.

Your doctor can give you more information about your own outlook (prognosis). You can also talk about this with the Cancer Research UK information nurses on freephone 0808 800 4040, from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

About these statistics

The terms 1 year survival, 3 year survival and 5 year survival don’t mean that you will only live for 1, 3 or 5 years.

Statisticians and researchers collect information. They watch what happens to people with cancer in the years after their diagnosis. 5 years is a common time point to measure survival. But some people live much longer than this.

5 year survival is the number of people who have not died from their cancer within 5 years after diagnosis.

Survival by stage

There are different types of pancreatic cancer. Most pancreatic cancers are the exocrine type. This means that they start in cells that produce pancreatic digestive juices. The survival information in this section excludes survival by stage for pancreatic endocrine tumours. This can be found further down this page.

The information below comes from a large study looking at the cancer registries of 7 countries. Cancer registries collect information about a person’s cancer directly from hospitals and healthcare professionals.

The information about survival by stage is for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 2012 and 2014.

This study included the UK. The researchers excluded Scotland from the UK nations as there was missing stage information. So, the following information is based on England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The statistics are split into 3 stage groups – localised, regional and distant cancers. In the UK, your doctor might not use these terms. Instead, they might describe your cancer as a number stage (stage 1 to 4). The following descriptions are a guide to help you understand whether your cancer is localised, regional or distant. This isn’t always straight forward and will depend on your individual situation. Talk to your specialist if you are unsure which group you are in.

Localised cancer means your cancer has not spread beyond the pancreas
Regional cancer means your cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes
Distant cancer means your cancer has spread to another part of your body

Localised

Almost 55 out of 100 people (almost 55%) survive their cancer for 1 year or more after diagnosis.

More than 25 out of 100 people (more than 25%) survive their cancer for 3 years or more after diagnosis.

Regional

Around 50 out of 100 people (around 50%) survive their cancer for 1 year or more after diagnosis.

Around 15 out of 100 people (around 15%) survive their cancer for 3 years or more after diagnosis.

Distant

Around 10 out of 100 people (around 10%) survive their cancer for 1 year or more after diagnosis.

Only 1 out of 100 people (1%) survive their cancer for 3 years or more after diagnosis.

These statistics are from a study which included over 35 000 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 7 countries. These included Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.

Researchers in this study excluded Scotland’s information from the UK nations, as there was missing stage information.

The study included pancreatic cancer cases diagnosed between 2012 and 2014.

Pancreatic cancer survival by stage and age in seven high-income countries (ICBP SURVMARK-2): a population-based study
C J Cabasag and others
British Journal of Cancer, March 2022. Volume 126, Pages 1774 to 1782

These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.

You can read more about these statistics in the Cancer Statistics section.

Survival for all stages of pancreatic cancer

There are no UK-wide statistics available for all stages of pancreatic cancer. Generally for adults with pancreatic cancer in England:

around 25 in every 100 (around 25%) survive their cancer for 1 year or more after they are diagnosed
more than 5 out of every 100 (more than 5%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more
it is estimated that only 5 out of every 100 (5%) will survive their cancer for 10 years or more after diagnosis

One reason for the poor outlook for pancreatic cancer is that it is often diagnosed late. The cancer is very often quite advanced.

Only around 10 in 100 people (around 10%) can have surgery to remove pancreatic cancer, which gives the best chance of cure.

You can read more about these statistics in the Cancer Statistics section.

Survival for pancreatic endocrine tumours

Pancreatic endocrine tumours are an uncommon type of pancreatic cancer. More recently doctors have been calling them neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs). This is an umbrella term for this group of disorders. Then they are called either neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) or neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs). This depends on how slow or fast growing the cells are.

They generally have a better outlook than adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

Read more about neuroendocrine tumours

1 year survival

The information below is for 1 year overall survival for pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) in the UK.

Around 80 in 100 people (around 80%) survive for 1 year or more.

5 year survival

There are no UK-wide 5 year survival statistics available for pancreatic NENs. The statistics below are from a European study. Please be aware that these figures may not be a true picture of survival in the UK. This is due to differences in health care systems, data collection and the population,

Around 40 out of 100 people (around 40%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.

1 year survival

This 1 year survival rate comes from a study done by Public Health England. The study looked at 1,415 people diagnosed with a pancreatic NEN in England between 2013 and 2015.

Impact of neuroendocrine morphology on cancer outcomes and stage at diagnosis: a UK nationwide cohort study 2013–2015
T Genus and others
British Journal of Cancer, 2019. Volume 121, Pages 966 to 972

5 year survival

These statistics are from a European study which included 1635 people diagnosed with pancreatic NENs. The patients came from different European countries (including the UK) and were diagnosed between 1995 and 2002. The 5 year relative survival statistics are for people diagnosed between 2000 and 2002.

Rare neuroendocrine tumours: Results of the surveillance of rare cancers in Europe project
J Maartaen Van de Zwan and others
European Journal of Cancer, July 2013. Volume 49, Issue 11, Pages 2565 to 2578

These 5 year survival statistics are for relative survival. Relative survival takes into account that some people will die of causes other than cancer. This gives a more accurate picture of cancer survival.

What affects survival

Your outlook depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed. This means how big it is and whether it has spread.

The type of cancer and grade of the cancer cells can also affect your likely survival. Grade means how abnormal the cells look under the microscope.

Your general health and fitness also affect survival. This is because the fitter you are, the better you may be able to cope with your cancer and treatment.

More statistics

For more in-depth information about survival and other statistics for pancreatic cancer, go to our Cancer Statistics section.

References

Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019
Office for National Statistics
Pancreatic cancer survival by stage and age in seven high-income countries (ICBP SURVMARK-2): a population-based study
C J Cabasag and others
British Journal of Cancer, March 2022. Volume 126, Pages 1774 to 1782
Cancer Stat Facts: pancreatic cancer
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, National Cancer Institute
Accessed January 2023
Pancreatic cancer: yesterday, today and tomorrow
D Ansari and others
Future Oncology, August 2016. Volume 12, Issue 16, Pages 1929 to 46
Impact of neuroendocrine morphology on cancer outcomes and stage at diagnosis: a UK nationwide cohort study 2013–2015
T Genus and others
British Journal of Cancer (2019) Volume 121, pages 966–972
The information on this page is based on literature searches and specialist checking. We used many references and there are too many to list here. Please contact patientinformation@cancer.org.uk with details of the particular issue you are interested in if you need additional references for this information.