LOS ANGELES, June 17, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Each year, more than one million Americans are diagnosed
with adult-onset diabetes mellitus, also known as type 2 diabetes.
The new diagnosis comes with a long list of potential
complications: high blood pressure, nerve damage, kidney disease,
stroke, glaucoma and more. But for African Americans and Latinos, a
diagnosis of diabetes after age 50 may also come with a more than
threefold risk for developing pancreatic cancer, according to a new
study led by the Keck School of Medicine of USC published today in the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute.
"There are very few studies on diabetes and pancreatic cancer
that include Latinos and African Americans," says the study's lead
author V. Wendy Setiawan, PhD,
associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School.
"Both groups have a high rate of diabetes, and African Americans,
in particular, have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer
relative to other racial/ethnic groups. Because most people with
pancreatic cancer are diagnosed at a late stage, the five-year
survival rate is low — about 8 percent. Identifying people who are
at high risk early on could potentially save their lives."
Symptoms of pancreatic cancer typically present when the disease
is in its later stages, and no screening methods currently
exist.
Using prospective data from approximately 49,000 African
Americans and Latinos, the researchers found that people who were
diagnosed with diabetes between the ages of 65 and 85 were more
likely to develop pancreatic cancer within three years as compared
with people without diabetes. The data showed that Latinos were
four times more likely to develop pancreatic cancer within three
years of a diabetes diagnosis, and African Americans were three
times more likely.
The research team also looked at whether late-onset diabetes was
associated with breast, prostate or colorectal cancer, and no
association was found.
"What we found is that, yes, diabetes is associated with
pancreatic cancer in African Americans and Latinos, but we also
discovered that there is a different type of diabetes here, a
late-onset diabetes that's associated with developing pancreatic
cancer within 36 months. The evidence suggests that late-onset
diabetes may be an early sign of pancreatic cancer," Setiawan
says.
Late-onset diabetes may be a useful marker for pancreatic
cancer, she adds, providing an opportunity to screen high-risk
groups with new tools such as liquid biopsy, which is a test that
looks for cancer cells or DNA from cancer cells in the blood.
"Pancreatic cancer is a rare disease, but if you are diagnosed
with late-onset diabetes, have a conversation with your clinician
about your individual risk," Setiawan says. "Early intervention
could improve survival."
For more information about the Keck School of Medicine of
USC, go to keck.usc.edu.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health
under award numbers R01CA209798 and U01CA164973. Approximately 80
percent of the project's funding was federally funded. Twenty
percent of the project's funding was not federally funded. The
content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not
necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes
of Health.
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SOURCE Keck School of Medicine of USC