Light micrograph of a section through an adenocarcinoma of the ducts of a human pancreas. Pancreatic ducts help to move digestive enzymes into the intestines. An adenocarcinoma is a cancer of glandular tissue that develops from epithelial cells. In this case, the cancer is in the epithelial cells of the pancreatic ducts. These cancerous cells have large and irregular nuclei (dark purple). Pancreatic cancers grow quickly and generally cause no severe symptoms until they reach a terminal stage.