Prediabetes Linked to Increased Risk of Pancreatic Cancer, finds research
Researchers have found that people with prediabetes are 40% more likely to develop pancreatic cancer as compared to those whose blood glucose levels are within the normal range. Prediabetes is when one's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet in the diabetic range. A recent study was published in the journal Pancreas by Jain A. and colleagues.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide, with few early diagnostic methods and poor survival rates. It would be significant to understand modifiable risk factors like prediabetes so intervention and early prevention could actually be implemented in patients. Evidence from hundreds of studies regarding a number of association studies of prediabetes and pancreatic cancer risk were somewhat inconsistent. The research objective was to assess the total risk of pancreatic cancer among people with prediabetes and to explore how age and geography modify this risk.
The researchers conducted a broad literature search of key medical databases over the last decade, concentrating on studies that investigated the relationship between prediabetes and pancreatic cancer. The meta-analysis included five studies that combined an impressive number of 5,425,111 individuals with prediabetes and 16,096,467 normoglycemic individuals from five different countries. The median follow-up time was 8.5 years to allow the researchers to observe cancer development over the long term. The overall effect size for the general measures of risk was estimated by combining the pooled odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR).
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