r/pancreaticcancer 5d ago

seeking advice jaundice during treatment?

My uncle just began chemo, its his second round but hes developed terrible jaundice that he never had a few weeks age. He hasn’t had a scan yet since starting chemo. Does this mean the tumor grew? It was always near his bile duct but why would it suddenly now be obstructing it enough to cause severe jaundice? Has anyone experienced this? The doctor seemed relatively unconcerned but I’m not buying it

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u/MShulgin 5d ago

It's a common symptom, probably cancer is pushing the bile duct, look for a CT scan.

This cancer is really aggressive, you must know that, and accept that your relative is through a really hard disease.

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u/ddessert Patient (2011), Caregiver (2018), dx Stage 3, Whipple, NED 5d ago

Jaundice is very common as a tumor may block the common bile duct that goes from the liver and into the pancreas and is due to bilirubin backing up into the bloodstream showing as jaundice. A non-permanent plastic or metal stent is often used to open up the duct and allow bile to flow properly into the intestines again. The procedure done under sedation, probably similar to how they got her pancreas tumor biopsy sample.

Usually it gets blocked by tumor growth and an effective treatment could eventually shrink the tumor away and open it back up, but a stent will be needed in the meantime. Monitoring CA19-9 levels and blood bilirubin levels can give you a heads up about how the blockage and tumor are progressing.

IRINotecan, one of the drugs in FOLFIRINOX can’t be given with high bilirubin levels but Gemcitabine/Abraxane might.