According to a new study, as many as 40 per cent of all patients suffering from pancreatic cancer have already been diagnosed with diabetes . Using this fact as a basis, diabetes could have a role to play in detecting cancer at an earlier stage.
Diabetes typically occurs long in advance of the diagnosis of cancer of the pancreas, which itself is hard to find at an early stage. The study, conducted at the Mayo Clinic in America, could help to identify pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage.
Dr. Suresh Chari, lead researcher, reportedly commented: "Our previous studies have shown an association between recent diagnoses of diabetes and pancreatic cancer. We are now quite convinced that in most patients with pancreatic cancer, the diabetes is caused by the cancer and not the other way around."
The future will see researchers work out the stages of cancer-induced diabetes, in order to catch the disease at an earlier stage and hopefully save lives. The findings were published in journal Gastroenterology.
Cancer clue from diabetes
Fri, 25 Jan 2008
