# Anxiety Disorders > Hypochondria (Health Anxiety) >  >  Scared of dying from deadly cancer

## apa37us

Thoughts of dying from cancer is on my mind most days. Throughout the years I've seen specialist and had test to check for all sorts of diseases and cancers, all negative. All that was ever found is that I have a rare benign condition, however recently it was linked to pancreatic cancer. After reading the article I have become obsessed with dying of pancreatic cancer. My doctors and gastro doctor all tell me that pancrease is fine, CT 2.5 year ago and MRI confirmed it recently.

I spent countless hours reading these medical reports and I feel I know way too much. It's my fault and too late to erase all the facts.

Any advice on how to get through this? My psychiatrist has me on Avitan & Zoloft, which I don't take. Also I plan to quit smoking marijuana daily, it's starting to increase my anxiety. Higher THC strains always give me panic attacks but I found a lower indica strain that is more of a body high.

Here is sample of study:

http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/2165-7092/2165-7092-S1-e001.pdf
Familial pancreatic hyperenzymemia is a benign condition and its pathophysiological mechanism is still unknown. An appropriate clinical and imaging follow-up should be carried out in those patients having this condition associated with familial pancreatic cancer.

Another Study
An elevation in serum pancreatic enzymes in the absence of pancreatic disease is reported in the literature and defined as âbenign pancreatic hyperenzymemiaâ or âGulloâs syndromeâ [7]. This condition can occur sporadically or in a familiar form, it is asymptomatic, and it is generally discovered incidentally. Nobody of the subjects included in this definition had been treated in the past with pancreatotoxic drugs. These authors sustain that at least one year must pass after the initial finding of pancreatic hyperenzymemia before it can be considered benign. Furthermore, they emphasize that a proper diagnosis of this condition is important because it allows the clinician to reassure the subject that this alteration is benign and does not require any kind of therapy. Nevertheless the possibility that these individuals could have an increased risk of pancreatic cancer cannot be excluded.

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## Otherside

Yer, I can relate. I panic about this a lot. There's been a lot of people in my family now who have been diagnosed with cancer at some point, and I'm worried I'm going to be next. I've had a few moments where I've convinced I've had a tumor. A while back, I managed to convince myself that the cause of my headaches was a brain tumor. I'm guilty of reading to much about conditions as well. The ironic thing is that by doing that, you're probably going to start seeing the symptoms in yourself.

Marijuana is also associated with heightened anxiety/mental illness. I've heard it works wonders it some people and make issues worse for others. It could be that is increasing your anxiety.

The best I can say is try and distract yourself, if you can. Try not to think about it. From expierence, that kind of panic does get better in time.

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## compulsive

Those journals don't even imply you have cancer. The first talks about relatives having the cancer but none of the subjects have cancer. It just says to go to a doctor and check.

The second one doesn't say anything. It says we could not find any links to cancer so they don't know. 

From what I have read it seems to be in concept similar to a benign mole. It has grown and showed symptoms which are signs of cancer but its not cancerous. Pancreatic hyperenzymemia itself is a sign of the cancer. If its not benign, then it means the person has cancer. They don't have many subjects to test and it probably has not been tested a lot as of yet, so they don't know if there's a connection or not.

I would recommend getting a notebook and planning out when you are to take certain tests and when you have taken them. May or may not help, but worth a try.

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## apa37us

> Pancreatic hyperenzymemia itself is a sign of the cancer. If its not benign, then it means the person has cancer.



I dont think it's a sign of cancer but rather a sign of underlying pancreatic disease like chronic pancreatitis, pancreas divisuium, etc but all my scans were clear.

thanks for replies so far

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## WintersTale

I worry about this, especially since cancer runs in my family. 

But I'm not going to stress over it, because it's not something I can control, anyway. God is the one in control.

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## apa37us

I ran into more studies today and I just pray what I have is benign and I do not have a really high increase change of getting pancreatic cancer later in life around 35-50 years of age


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19296399
Chronic asymptomatic pancreatic hyperenzymemia is a benign condition in only half of the cases: a prospective study.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23042375
it's characterized by serum elevation of all pancreatic enzymes in the absence of underlying diseases; it occurs in either sporadic or familial form and it persists over time with considerable fluctuation in serum enzyme concentrations, including frequent normalizations. Proper diagnosis of this form of hyperenzymemia is important because it reassures the subjects having this anomaly that the syndrome is benign, and because it can prevent multiple and expensive diagnostic tests or useless hospitalizations or therapies.




 Chronic asymptomatic hyperamylasemia unrelated to pancreatic diseases.


Summary of "Chronic asymptomatic hyperamylasemia unrelated to pancreatic diseases."


Purpose: This study was addressed to assess the clinical characteristics of patients presenting with chronic hyperamylasemia unrelated to pancreatic diseases (CHUPD). Almost all patients presenting with chronic hyperamylasemia undergo expensive, long, difficult, and often unnecessarily repeated diagnostic procedures. This is in conjunction with the poor knowledge of the fact that besides hyperenzymemia secondary to pancreatic diseases and systemic illnesses, various non-pathological forms of chronic hyperamylasemia without relevant pathologic consequence can occur in clinical practice.Material and Methods: Data of all patients with CHUPD were retrospectively reviewed (June 1997-December 2009). Fifty one patients were included in the study; median follow up was 48 months (range 8-112 months). Their pre-enrolment diagnoses were: chronic pancreatitis in 31 cases (60.7 ::  and recurrent pancreatitis in 13 cases (25.4 :: ; the remaining 7 patients (13.7 ::  were without a specific diagnosis.Results: Our observations, supported by diagnostic procedures (Ca19-9 serum levels, abdominal ultrasonography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and endoscopic ultrasonography) revealed that CHUPD was secondary to: a) benign pancreatic hyperamylasemia, 20 patients (39.2 :: ; b) macroamylasemia, 18 patients (35.2  ::  and c) salivary hyperamylasemia, 13 patients (25.4 :: .Conclusions: Due to the poor familiarity with CHUPD, the occurrence of this condition quite frequently leads to unnecessarily repeated diagnostic procedures.

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## 1

No

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