Anyone have a dilated pancreatic duct? Worried.

A recent scan showed a dilated main pancreatic duct 7.5 cm ( new)and a 2.0 cm lesion on pancreas head that has been present for 4 years without change. I’m a 71 year old male. How alarmed should I be? I’ve been referred to a specialist at UPMC. Pittsburgh for consult.

Hi Jack. I know, don't say that in an airport. I guess I already made work for someone looking at e-mails for bad guys anyway. As another Jack I just could not pass up another chance to make fun of it.

I had a 4.9cm tumor that blocked my duct in the head of my pancreas. I started with diarrhea a year ago last December. The last of May, 1st of June 2024 I was in the hospital for a high INR. I take blood thinners (Coumadin also used as rat poison) for a massive blood clot in my leg. Normal range 0-1. My target range is 2-3. I went in for a regular and was so high the meter at my doctors would not give a reading. I was sent to the hospital, and it was 9. They gave me an IV of vitamin K and that brought it down. Blood work found that my Bilirubin (also normal range 0-1) was 10. My Bilirubin climbed by 2 each day I was in the hospital. On the 5th day after a lot of time trying to get tests done a stint was placed in the duct to open it up. Ultrasound showed the ducts in my liver were pushed out like blowing up a balloon. Bilirubin is a product of the liver breaking down old blood cells. As the tumor had blocked the duct the Bilirubin could not be expelled through my digestive system and was building up in my blood. I am not sure this is what is happening with you but if for some reason your growth has blocked your duct then a stint should be a fairly easy solution. Just like a normal endoscopy to look at your stomach. There is a chance that the stint could not be placed. In that case a bypass would need to be made and would be another a bit more complicated procedure. When I had my stint done, they also scraped the inside of the duct where my tumor pressed it closed. And checked for cancer cells. That came up negative. On July 7th, 2024, I had Whipple (modified. None of my stomach was removed) surgery.

I was jaundice in the hospital. I kidded with the nurses about being a yellow boy. Another little play on words as my doctor was Dr. Winchester. I had seen her at my PC doctor's office. The 1866 Winchester commonly called a Yellowboy was the first riffle to carry the Winchester name. Good luck to you and everyone dealing with cancer.

Hey Happy Jack!
You made me laugh and I love your sense of humor my man. I’ve just started this process but dealt with kidney cancer (4.5 years ango, and had my left one removed at age 67 .The docs said this is not kidney cancer. I did immunotherapy for it and unlike some people it worked wonders,cleared up ,cancer free. This new problem arose on a routine follow up scan for kidney monitoring. I’ve had stinky and loose BM’s for about a month now. Some weight loss to.My blood panel work last month was normal.Did you have stinky BMs and weight loss leading up to diagnosis? Did you do a blood test,CA19-9? Im just at the start of this diagnostic process and see a GI doc in Pittsburgh in a week.
I appreciate you telling me your story,I’m not a big socialmedia guy but I find reading these therapeutic, yours especially! Peace,Love and perspective.Ill update when I have more.

Good morning Jack. The main duct from the liver passes through the head of the pancreas and joins the pancreas enzyme duct. The pancreas enzymes are needed to digest fats. My tumor blocked the pancreas enzyme duct first and this caused steatorrhea. You can do a search for that to see if your symptoms match. You can also do a search for pancreas anatomy to see the duct from the liver and gallbladder and how it joins the pancreas enzyme duct. My gastro doc's were at a complete loss as to my symptom cause and I had to figure it out myself. Only way I could leave my house was to not eat anything for at least 12 hours until I figured out to have a fat free diet. I took packages of frozen veggies and added a can of diced tomato's for a soup. Fat free yogurt with unsweetened applesauce. There was more I just can't remember now. Mostly just fruits and veggies. Creon is one of the more common scripts of pancreatic enzymes to take to help with this. It seems that it is very common for people of age to have the pancreas slow down greatly producing these enzymes. And that pancreatic cancer is rare. So much so that when I was in the hospital and had the ultrasound showing the mass and duct expansion that the gastro was still flat saying no cancer it was just that I was an old guy. They had previously refused to check me for cancer on multiple occasions when I asked. A CA19 was done in the hospital. It was 1567. I did have weight loss and the steatorrhea. It seems though that that could have been caused by just being an old guy. If as you say there is no change in your cyst in the head of your pancreas then you may have something else going on. My GI doctor that did the stint said he did fine some gall stones and was able to clear those. So that can be something that may have happened.

Try the no fat diet to see if the GI issues go away. That should tell you if you are having a problem with pancreatic enzymes. And you can let your GI doctor know.

This is just my understanding of what went on with me and I am not a doctor. I am glad you liked my post. I have had more than my share of health issues over the years and way too much pain as a result. At this point I am on palliative care just trying to be as pain free as I can. I read a joke some time back that went something like this. When ask how are you doing. I would say like that guy who fell off the top of the Empire State Building. Every floor he passed people would hear him say "so far so good". I woke up again today and am fairly pain free. To be pain free I would need to take the next strongest pain medication that would prevent me from driving. I am not ready to give that up yet. I just need to see what I can do with today. I did good with yesterday as you and another liked my post. I have another day to spend time with my family and tell them I love them.

Good luck to you with this and I hope that it is just a quick and easy fix with a gall stone or something even more minor.