I started having uncontrollable itching last summer… it turned out to be a symptom of pancreatic cancer

A Virginia woman who woke up in the middle of the night with itching from head to toe was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Barbara Green, 79, had been traveling the world and exercising every day with yoga, strength training and walking when she started itching in July 2022.

At first she thought nothing of it. Because the itching persisted that weekend, she visited her doctor for a stronger relief cream.

“I was so itchy, like you’ve had a bug bite that really drives you crazy, but this is like a bug bite that spreads all over your body,” Ms. Green told Today.com.

Around this time, she also noticed that her urine was darker and her stools were light colored. Her doctor suspected liver problems and ordered blood tests.

The next day, the clinic called and told Ms. Green that her liver enzymes – proteins in the body that speed up reactions in the body, such as the production of bile, which promotes blood clotting – were dangerously elevated.

She was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer — which kills 50,000 Americans every year — that had spread to her omentum, fatty tissue that starts in the stomach and spreads throughout the intestines.

Barbara Green, 79, was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer after waking up in the middle of the night with itching all over

Early signs of pancreatic cancer include jaundice, stomach pain, back pain, weight loss and floating stools

Doctors told her that the average patient dies within eight to eleven months of this diagnosis.

“It’s incredibly traumatic,” Ms Greens said.

According to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic cancer is the third deadliest form of the disease in the United States (NCI).

It has been called a ‘silent killer’ as only 12.5 percent survive after five years. Once it spreads to other areas, that rate drops to just three percent.

This is because symptoms are usually not noticed until the disease has reached a later stage. Only 13 percent of cases are confined to their primary location.

Common symptoms include stomach pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, jaundice, dark urine, light-colored or floating stools, fatigue, and itching.

NCI estimates that approximately 64,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed this year, along with more than 50,000 deaths.

The number of cases is increasing. In the US, the incidence of the disease has increased by one percent every year since 2000, the American newspaper said American Cancer Society.

Global cases have doubled since 1990, a 2019 study in The Lancet estimated.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), approximately two-thirds of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer are over 65 years old and almost all are over 45 years old.

Ms Green was not a candidate for surgery because the cancer had already spread to other organs, although she responded well to chemotherapy.

As of last month, the cancer had shrunk so much that doctors could barely see it on scans.

It’s been 15 months since doctors told her she had less than a year to live.

“I don’t know how long I’ll live,” Mrs. Green said. ‘I don’t think the doctors really know either. It seems I won’t die in time.’