Diabetes raises pancreatic cancer risk – study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Middle-aged and older Americans who
are newly diagnosed with diabetes also appear to have a higher
risk of deadly pancreatic cancer, according to a study
published on Tuesday.

For three years after their diagnosis with diabetes,
patients have eight times the risk of developing pancreatic
cancer, the study at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center found.

Diabetes itself may be an early symptom of the
hard-to-treat cancer, the researchers said.

“Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect until it is in an
advanced stage, leaving little hope for patients,” said Dr.
Suresh Chari, who led the study.

“This study is important, because it leads us closer to
finding indicators that will allow earlier detection and
treatment.”

Pancreatic cancer kills virtually all of the 32,000 people
who are diagnosed with the disease in the United States, making
it the fourth leading cause of cancer death. This is in part
because it shows few symptoms before it becomes advanced.

Writing in the journal Gastroenterology, Chari and
colleagues said they studied 2,122 patients from Rochester,
Minnesota, aged 50 and older who were diagnosed with diabetes
between 1950 and 1995.

Pancreatic cancer is uncommon — 18 of the patients were
diagnosed with the cancer within three years.

Chari’s team compared this rate with the rate expected for
people of similar age and sex without diabetes. The group with
newly diagnosed diabetes had eight times the expected rate.

Type-2 diabetes is diagnosed when the body no longer
responds properly to insulin, but, as with type-1 diabetes, can
be caused by the destruction of cells in the pancreas.

“More research is needed to determine if using increased
sugar levels as an indicator of pancreatic cancer is feasible,”
Chari said in a statement.

“Our goal now is to identify a marker in the blood that
will enable us to distinguish diabetes associated with
pancreatic cancer from the far more common type-2 diabetes.”