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If you have any questions about your diagnosis or treatment, speak to your doctor or nurse.
You can also speak to our specialist nurses on our free Support Line.
Stages of pancreatic cancer
- What is stage 1 pancreatic cancer?
- What is stage 2 pancreatic cancer?
- What is stage 3 pancreatic cancer?
- What is stage 4 pancreatic cancer?
You may be told the stage of cancer. This describes the size of the cancer, if it has spread outside the pancreas and where to.
What does stage 3 pancreatic cancer mean?
Stage 3 cancer means that the cancer has spread outside your pancreas. It may have spread to the large blood vessels near your pancreas, or to a number of lymph nodes.
This is usually locally advanced cancer but it may occasionally be borderline resectable cancer.
Our specialist nurse, Nicci, explains what stage 3 cancer means and where you can get support. Andrew shares his experience of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the support he had.
What are the symptoms of stage 3 pancreatic cancer?
Not everyone will get the same symptoms of pancreatic cancer. Common symptoms include indigestion, pain in your tummy or back, changes to your poo, losing weight without meaning to, and jaundice.
Speak to your doctor or nurse if you have any symptoms or side effects, for help managing them.
What are the possible treatments for stage 3 pancreatic cancer?
If you have locally advanced cancer, it won’t usually be possible to remove the cancer with surgery. You may be offered chemotherapy on its own first. Some people then have radiotherapy. This is to try to shrink the cancer and slow down its growth.
Read more about locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
Borderline resectable cancer is cancer that has grown very close to the major blood vessels near the pancreas. Some surgeons may class this as stage 2 cancer. You may be able to have surgery to remove the cancer, but it depends which blood vessels are affected. Ask your doctor or nurse if you’re not sure how this affects you. You may be offered chemotherapy on its own first. Some people then have chemotherapy with radiotherapy. This is to try to shrink the cancer, before your doctors consider whether surgery to remove the cancer might be possible.
Read more about cancer that is close to major blood vessels.
What’s the survival rate or prognosis for stage 3 pancreatic cancer?
Some people want to know whether their cancer can be cured, or how long they may have left to live. This is called your prognosis, outlook or life expectancy.
This will be different for each person, and depends on several things. It’s important to talk to your doctor about your own situation, if you want to know more. We have more information explaining prognosis.
We’re here for you. If you or someone you care about has pancreatic cancer, we can help.
Speak to our nurses
Read our booklet for people just diagnosed
If you have just been diagnosed with locally advanced or advanced cancer, download our booklet: Pancreatic cancer if you can’t have surgery (inoperable cancer). A guide if you have just been diagnosed.
You can also order a printed copy.
References
We have listed some of the references to the sources used to write this information. If you would like the full list of references, email us at publications@pancreaticcancer.org.uk
- National Cancer Institute. Stage Information for Pancreatic Cancer [Online] Available from: http://www.cancer.gov/types/pancreatic/hp/pancreatic-treatment-pdq#link/stoc_h2_2
- McIntyre C and Winter J. Diagnostic evaluation and staging of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Seminars in Oncology, 42:19-27, 2015.
- Isaji S et al. International consensus on definition and criteria of borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma 2017. Pancreatology, 18:2-11, 2018.
- Ghaneh, P et al. ESPAC-5F: Four-arm, prospective, multicenter, international randomized phase II trial of immediate surgery compared with neoadjuvant gemcitabine plus capecitabine (GEMCAP) or FOLFIRINOX or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2020 38:15_suppl, 4505-450.
- Chen Z et al. Meta-analysis of FOLFIRINOX-based neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Medicine. 2021;100:3.
Published March 2026
To be reviewed March 2029