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Kidney Stone, Nodule In Lung And Head Of Pancreas. Family History Of GI Cancers. Am I At Any Risk?

Posted on Wed, 6 Feb 2013

Question: I had a ct scan last Friday. They found kidney stones, 4mm nodule in my lung & noted a prominent head of pancreas. My doctor put in an order for an MRI of my pancreas. That is scheduled for 7pm today. I poked around what that meant prominent head & found it all related to pancreatic cancer. I am only 34 & have a family history of GI cancers. My question is: is there any other reason why my pancreas has a prominent head that does not mean cancer? Or does that always mean sign of cancer? Worried & would like to ease my mind before going in. Thank you for any help you can give.

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (2 hours later)

Hello,
Thanks for the query.
There is a wide spectrum of benign and malignant diseases which can produce a mass in the head of the pancreas. It can be solid (ductal adenocarcinoma, chronic pancreatitis, endocrine tumor) or a cystic lesion (cystic neoplasm, true cyst or pseudocyst). The most important question is whether or not it is a malignant or benign.

So a wide variety of tests are to be performed which includes MRI followed by estimation of tumor markers in blood and biopsy of the local tissue.

So please be at ease as there are various non cancerous diseases which can manifest as a mass on head of pancreas.

I hope it helps however you may revert to me for any further query.
Best of luck
Thanks

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar