It is a disease that starts in the cells of the pancreas.

Cancer occurs when normal body cells get out of control, multiply and spread. These cells clump together to form a cancerous or malignant tumour which can then grow and damage healthy parts of the body.

The most usual place for the cancer to start is in the exocrine pancreas. If this happens, you have exocrine pancreatic cancer.

Only about one in twenty cancers start in the endocrine pancreas. If this happens, you have endocrine pancreatic cancer, or islet cell cancer.

Within these two main groups there are different types of pancreatic cancer. If your doctors find out you have cancer, they will explain to you which type you have.