Called “the silent killer” because it progresses to a late stage without apparent symptoms, pancreatic cancer has become the 2nd digestive cancer in France and could become the second cause of death by cancer in the years 2030-2040. Rapid weight loss, hyperglycemia and diabetes are some of the known hallmarks of this cancer, but until now scientists did not know at what stage of the disease these changes occur. A new study from the University of Surrey (Great Britain) shows that paying attention to these signs could help diagnose pancreatic cancer 3 years earlier.
Dramatic weight loss is a warning sign
For this study, British researchers recruited 8,777 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer as well as 34,979 controls by age, sex and diabetes. The results of this extensive study published on Plos One report that “Statistically significant changes in weight and blood sugar control began an average of 2 to 3 years before the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Vital information that could be used to detect pancreatic cancer earlier than currently.
“At diagnosis, the body mass index of people with pancreatic cancer was nearly three units lower than that of people without cancer.” The results of their study show that this dramatic weight loss would start 2 years before patients were diagnosed. “As for the high glucose levels, they were detected even earlier, from 3 years before the diagnosis” underline the researchers.
Additionally, the researchers found that increased blood sugar in people without diabetes was associated with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer than in people with diabetes.
Source : BMI and HbA1c are metabolic markers for pancreatic cancer: Matched case-control study using a UK primary care databasePlos one, October 2022
