Hello - thanks for asking your question.
As was commented below, cancerous tumors normally show up as hyperdense or normodense as compared to the adjacent pancreatic tissue.
Possibilities include cystic lesions. These would include retention cysts (fluid containing spaces usually of no clinical significance), pseudocysts (which develop as a result of inflammation and necrosis), or cystic neoplasms (such as mucinous cystadenoma/cystadenocarcinoma, mucinous duct ectasia (intraductal papillary mucinous tumor), serous cystadenoma and papillary cystic neoplasm.
Malignant potential for these lesions range from none to highly malignant. MRI and endoscopic ultrasound are other modalities used to elucidate the cause of the lesion if the repeat CT scan is not conclusive.
Pancreatic cancer is rare below the age of 45. Surgeon is correct in that pancreatic cancer is normally primary. Metastasis to the pancreas ranges from 3.5-4.7% of cases with the kidney, breast, stomach, colon, and lungs being the most common primaries.
Followup with your personal physician is essential.
This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.
Thanks,
Kevin, M.D.
Obviously, further testing is called for. However, I would point out two points regarding the low density finding:
(1) Low density images on CT Scans are generally not cancer. Cancerous tumors show up as more dense.
(2) Pancreatic cancer in almost never the primary source of cancer. Pancreatic cancer is virtually always the result of metasases from some other primary cancer source or sources, and by the time it has spread to the pancreas, it has generally spread through multiple areas of the body. This is what accounts for the less than one percent 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients.
Follow up with additional tests, but I wouldn't stress out over a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Good luck,
Chicken Soup
The above comment is quite correct in stating that low density shadows are not likely to be cancer. It is absolutely incorrect, however, that tumors of the pancreas are not usually primary; in fact, they virtually always are. The person who wrote that post may have been thinking of liver; a very different organ.