What can go wrong with the Pancreas?

It is important to appreciate that there are obviously many exocrine problems that can affect the pancreas, but in this section only the endocrine problems will be covered. The major endocrine problems of the pancreas can be categorised into overproduction or underproduction of certain hormones and non-functioning tumours.

An underproduction of the hormone insulin gives rise to Diabetes Mellitus Type I where there is a destruction of the b cells of the islets of Langerhan's in the pancreas.

There are many different functioning tumours of the pancreas that give rise to different hormones such as insulinomas, gastrinomas, glucagonomas, somatostatinomas, vipomas, ppomas, calcitoninomas and many more (see relevant section).

There are also many different types of non-functioning tumours of the pancreas such as periampullary adenocarcinoma, carcinoma of the body and tail, cystadinocarcinoma and many more.