Controversial talk show host Jerry Springer died Thursday at age 79 from pancreatic cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, about 50,550 people will die in the U.S. this year from the disease, which also claimed the lives of Alex Trebek, Aretha Franklin, Steve Jobs, Patrick Swayze, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

According to USA Today, pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose because we lack cost-effective screenings to detect the disease in its earliest and most curable stages. It is difficult to detect tumors in the pancreas since it is tucked behind the stomach. As a result, most cases are diagnosed at advanced stages when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and surgery is no longer an option.

However, there is good news about the increased survival rate of pancreatic cancer. Just 20 years ago the five-year survival rate was 4%. Now, thanks to a surge in research funding at the National Cancer Institute and other agencies, that rate has more than doubled. And, if the tumor is caught early enough and is confined to the pancreas, the survival rate rises to 40%.

According to AARP, scientists are developing breakthrough treatments for this devastating disease that will hopefully increase the survival rate even further. Dr. Shubham Pant, associate professor in the department of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, says that new screening techniques and drugs will help “double the survival rate in the next five years.”

Unfortunately, many of the warning signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer, such as abdominal pain or weight loss, are often attributed to something else. For example.  Jeopardy! host Trebek was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer after seeking help for persistent stomach pain.

“I wish I had known sooner that the stomach pain I experienced prior to my diagnosis was a symptom of pancreatic cancer,” said Trebek at the time of his diagnosis in 2019. Dr. Brian Wolpin, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says that if pancreatic cancer is caught at an early stage, you can better tolerate treatment and have a higher chance of a cure.

Here are symptoms to be aware of:

• Abdominal and back pain. Pain radiating from the upper abdomen to the back, which can start as dull discomfort and become sharper and more persistent with time is a common sign of pancreatic cancer.

• Diabetes with weight loss. A study published in JAMA Oncology in 2020 found that participants with recent-onset diabetes accompanied by weight loss had a substantially increased risk for pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Wolpin, the senior author of the study, revealed that the incidence for this type of cancer was six- to tenfold higher among study participants with newly diagnosed diabetes and weight loss than among the study subjects without diabetes or weight loss.

• Jaundice. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), jaundice, or yellowing of the eyes and skin may be one of the first signs of pancreatic cancer. Jaundice is caused by the buildup of bilirubin, a yellow-brown substance made in the liver and contained in a liquid called bile.  Normally bilirubin passes through the body in the stool after it goes through the bile duct, but if that duct is blocked by cancer of the pancreas, the amount of bilirubin in the body builds up, causing jaundice. Other signs of jaundice include dark urine, light-colored or greasy stools, and itchy skin.

• Nausea or vomiting. If the cancer presses on the far end of the stomach it can partially block it, making it hard for food to get through. This can cause nausea, vomiting and pain that tends to be worse after eating, says the ACS.

• Blood clots. The first clue that someone has pancreatic cancer may be a blood clot in a large vein, often the leg. This is called deep vein thrombosis or DVT. “The symptoms of a DVT include sudden swelling of the ankles or legs,” Dr. Jonathan Aliota, an interventional cardiologist and a member of the Texas Heart Institute at the Baylor College of Medicine, tells Newsmax. Sometimes a piece of the clot can break off and travel to the lungs, which could cause chest pain.

• Enlarged gallbladder or liver. If the tumor is blocking the bile duct, the bile can build up in the gallbladder making it larger. This can be seen on imaging tests or even felt by a doctor during an examination. The ACS says that pancreatic cancer can also travel to the liver, causing enlargement which can also be seen on imaging tests or felt by a physician.