Once the doctor confirms the symptoms as pancreatic cancer, the stages of
pancreatic cancer can clearly tell the doctor how far it has spread. The scan and the tests that the patient are advised to have when diagnosing the
cancer can give brief information about the stage.

It is very important because only with the help of the result of tests doctor
will be able to give treatment based on the stage of cancer. The patient will
have to undergo more tests to find whether the cancer has spread from the
pancreas to the tissues surrounding it or to other body parts. Though there are advanced equipments for performing tests, doctors will not be able to tell the exact stage of the cancer until after surgery.

This process of testing is known as staging, and these steps help the doctor to devise a necessary plan for the patient’s treatment. Following are the stages used to describe exocrine cancer of pancreas:

Stage I

This is the primary stages of pancreatic cancer. The cancer is only inside
the pancreas region. Except in pancreas no other organs of the body is affected from cancer.

Stage II

This is the second stage of Cancer in which the cancer tends to spread to the
organs nearby, such as duodenum or bile duct. But for sure it might not have entered lymph nodes. In other words, though the cancer seems to grow locally it might not have spread through the blood or the lymph nodes which is a bit far from pancreases.

Stage III

The cancer has affected the lymph nodes too. But it might have not affected
the organs nearby

Stage IV A

Now in this stage the cancer has covered organs too such as stomach, colon
or spleen that are nearby pancreas.

Stage IV B

At this stage of pancreatic cancer, the cancer should have spread to organs
like stomach, colon and spleen that are near to the pancreas or also to the
liver or lungs which is far away from the pancreases.

Recurrent: After the cancer is being treated there are chances that the cancer can hit back (recurred) to pancreas or to the other parts of the body.