What Nargis Dutt's Story Can Help Us Understand About Pancreatic Cancer

What the record says

Nargis was one of the most celebrated actresses in Indian cinema, remembered above all for Mehboob Khan's Mother India, released in 1957. The National Herald records that she was born Fatima Abdul Rashid in Kolkata on June 1, 1929, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1980, and died on May 3, 1981. It states that she had pancreatic cancer.

Her family's charity, the Nargis Dutt Foundation, records that she was treated for about a year at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York. The foundation was first set up in her memory in 1981 in New York City by her husband Sunil Dutt and the Indian community there. It was formally established in Mumbai on October 11, 1982, and it has funded cancer treatment, hospital equipment, and scholarships across India ever since.

That is the public record, and this page stays inside it.

Where this cancer starts

The pancreas sits behind the stomach, in front of the spine. It does two jobs. Exocrine cells make enzymes that break down food. Endocrine cells make hormones, including insulin, that control blood sugar.

Nearly all pancreatic cancer starts on the exocrine side, in the cells lining the ducts. Cancers are also named for where in the gland they sit — head, body, tail, or the hooked part called the uncinate process — because surgery differs for each. Our page on types of pancreatic cancer sets out those differences.

Why it is usually found late

NCI is blunt about the reasons this cancer is hard to catch. Early disease causes few noticeable symptoms. The symptoms that do appear look like other, far more common problems, such as pancreatitis or an ulcer. And the pancreas sits behind other organs, so it is difficult to see clearly on a scan.

As the cancer grows, NCI lists these signs: jaundice, which is yellowing of the skin and eyes; pale stools or dark urine; pain in the upper or middle abdomen and in the back; weight loss with no explanation; loss of appetite; and fatigue.

There is no blood test that settles it. NCI notes that no tumor-specific marker exists for pancreatic cancer. The commonly used one, CA 19-9, has low specificity, meaning other conditions raise it too. Most people with the disease have a raised CA 19-9 at diagnosis, and a rising level during or after treatment can flag tumor growth. But a normal level does not rule out the cancer coming back.

Diagnosis rests on imaging. That means a helical CT scan, an MRI, or endoscopic ultrasound, where a camera on a tube views the pancreas from inside the stomach. Keyhole surgery is sometimes used to look directly. All of it is asked to answer one question: can the tumor be removed?

What treatment involves

If the tumor can be removed, surgery is the centerpiece. For tumors in the head of the pancreas that means the Whipple procedure, in which the head of the pancreas, part of the small intestine, the gallbladder, and the bile duct all come out together. Tumors in the body or tail are treated with a distal pancreatectomy. Sometimes the whole gland has to go. Our page on recovering from Whipple surgery explains what that operation involves.

Chemotherapy is given before surgery, after it, or both. In the A021501 trial of 126 patients with borderline removable disease, those given modified FOLFIRINOX before surgery had a median overall survival of 29.8 months, against roughly 18 months in historical comparison groups. FOLFIRINOX combines oxaliplatin, leucovorin, irinotecan, and fluorouracil.

For disease that has already spread, two combinations are standard. FOLFIRINOX gave a median survival of 11.1 months against 6.8 months for gemcitabine alone. Gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel gave 8.5 months against 6.7 months for gemcitabine alone in a trial of 861 patients. Both combinations are harder on the body than gemcitabine by itself.

NCI also lists palliative steps that can improve daily life without changing survival. They include opening a blocked bile duct, relieving a blocked stomach outlet, pain control, and psychological care.

The numbers

The 2026 US projection of 67,530 new pancreatic cancer cases and 52,740 deaths comes from the American Cancer Society, reprinted on SEER's page. Five-year relative survival across all stages, for cases diagnosed in 2016 through 2022, is 13.7%. The median age at diagnosis is 71.

Stage at diagnosis drives almost everything. Only 15% are found while still confined to the pancreas, where five-year relative survival is 43.6%. Another 28% are found in nearby lymph nodes, at 17.0%. More than half — 51% — are found only after the cancer has reached distant organs, at 3.4%.

These are group averages from people treated in past years. They describe a population, not a person, and they say nothing about anyone's own scan.

When to get checked

Book an appointment for any of these, and do not wait for them to pass:

• Yellowing of the skin or the whites of the eyes, at any age
• Stools that turn pale or clay-colored, or urine that turns dark
• Pain in the upper abdomen that bores through to the back, especially at night
• Losing weight without trying
• A new diagnosis of diabetes in an adult who is losing weight rather than gaining it

NCI lists the main risk factors as a family history of the disease, cigarette smoking, obesity, chronic pancreatitis, and certain inherited gene changes including BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, and ATM. Our page on pancreatic cancer risk factors covers who might discuss surveillance with a specialist.

What this does not mean

• Nothing about one person's illness in 1981 predicts anyone's outcome now. Chemotherapy combinations, imaging, and surgery have all changed since.
• The 13.7% figure is an all-stage average across the whole US population. It is not a forecast, and it is not adjusted for anything about an individual.
• Jaundice is far more often caused by gallstones or hepatitis than by cancer. The point is to get it looked at, not to assume.
• A normal CA 19-9 result does not rule out pancreatic cancer, and a raised one does not confirm it.
• There is no screening test for average-risk adults. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends against it, a grade D, though that advice excludes people with inherited high-risk syndromes.

Sources

• Nargis Dutt Foundation, About Us — https://www.nargisduttfoundation.com/about
• National Herald (India), Nargis Dutt: The woman and the actress — https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/obituary/nargis-dutt-the-woman-and-the-actress
• NCI PDQ, Pancreatic Cancer Treatment (Health Professional Version) — https://www.cancer.gov/types/pancreatic/hp/pancreatic-treatment-pdq
• NCI, Pancreatic Cancer—Patient Version — https://www.cancer.gov/types/pancreatic
• SEER Cancer Stat Facts, Pancreatic Cancer — https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/pancreas.html

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

The National Cancer Information Foundation publishes Cancer Explained. This page is for learning. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.

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