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New steps forward towards the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, one of the cancers with the highest mortality rates, precisely because of the diagnostic delay.
A new study conducted by the University of Surrey (England), in collaboration with Pancreatic Cancer Action and the University of Oxford, has identified two early indicators of the disease that could contribute to a more timely diagnosis: sudden weight loss and hyperglycemia.
The results were published on the pages of the Plos One specialist magazine.
The study in detail
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As reported by the authors, nearly 90% of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed when the disease is at an advanced stage. “Due to the difficulty in detecting pancreatic cancer, survival rates are extremely low compared to other cancers, with less than 10% of people surviving five years or more from diagnosis,” said Agnieszka Lemanska, first signer of the study. .
In the course of the study, the research team studied the signs of cancer and verified the timing of onset of symptoms on a sample of 8,777 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, compared with a control group of 34,979 subjects.
The results
Thus, two possible indicators associated with the future diagnosis of cancer emerged: a sharp weight loss two years before diagnosis and an increase in glycated hemoglobin from the previous 3 years. Using further tests, the researchers found that weight loss in people with diabetes was associated with a higher likelihood of pancreatic cancer than in people without diabetes. Among the latter, however, hyperglycemia would be associated with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer than in people with diabetes.