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Some people with pancreatic cancer develop diabetes. This is known as pancreatic cancer-related diabetes (PDAC-DM). It looks like type 2 diabetes at first, but new research shows these two types of diabetes are quite different inside the body.
The study tested people who were newly diagnosed with either PDAC-DM or type 2 diabetes. It looked at how their bodies handled sugar after eating, and how their insulin and other hormones responded.
The results showed that people with PDAC-DM:
⦿ Were more sensitive to insulin (the hormone that controls blood sugar)
⦿ Produced much less insulin
⦿ Had weaker beta cells (which make insulin)
⦿ Cleared insulin from their blood faster
Even though both groups had high blood sugar, their bodies worked differently. People with PDAC-DM had better insulin sensitivity but much lower insulin production. After meals, their levels of some hormones like glucagon and GLP-1 were also higher, while another hormone, GIP, stayed the same in both groups.
These findings are important. PDAC-DM might be a warning sign of early pancreatic cancer. It may also need a different kind of diabetes treatment. Many patients are first told they have type 2 diabetes when the real cause is cancer. This delay can hurt cancer treatment.
If you or someone you know has new diabetes and also has unexplained weight loss, stomach pain, or fatigue, talk to a doctor. It could help find pancreatic cancer earlier.
Dr Harsh Shah, MS, MCh (Surgical Gastroenterology), DrNB (Surgical Gastroenterology), performs pancreatic cancer surgery at Apollo Hospital, Bhat, Gandhinagar. Consultations are at Shah’s Gastro, Cancer & Robotic Surgery Centre, Gota, Ahmedabad.
Diabetes that appears because a pancreatic tumour disturbs insulin release, often in someone over fifty with weight loss and no family history of diabetes.
It begins later in life, comes with unintended weight loss rather than weight gain, and blood sugar is often hard to control from the outset.
When it starts after age fifty with weight loss, abdominal or back pain, or a sudden change in control in someone whose diabetes was previously stable.
A triple-phase CT of the pancreas. Endoscopic ultrasound is added when the CT is normal but suspicion remains high.
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