Every year millions of people in the world suffer from pancreatic cancer . In the UK alone, more than 10,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. Unfortunately, most of those people get diagnosed with the disease so late that the chances of recovery are over. Only less than 10% of people survive five years after diagnosis.
As The Conversation reports , pancreatic cancer is a silent disease. For many people, there are no symptoms until it becomes very severe. Weight loss and increased blood sugar levels are known signs, but it is unknown when and to what extent these changes occur.
Agnieszka Lemanska , Professor of Health Data Science at the University of Surrey , writes in one of her studies,
If we can better understand how and when these changes occur before a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, we can use this knowledge to diagnose the disease earlier and, potentially, in the future, of people affected by this deadly disease. can save lives.
In the largest study of its kind published in PLOS One, researchers from the University of Surrey, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Oxford, examined the known symptoms of pancreatic cancer (weight loss, high blood sugar and diabetes) and observed whether When do they develop in relation to cancer?
For this research, the researchers used a large dataset of more than 10 million people in England. The large size of the dataset was important to ensure that our findings represent the entire population. Researchers extracted information about three characteristics of pancreatic cancer diagnosis and relationship and examined how they change for people over time.
Study of BMI and blood sugar of 9,000 people
Researchers compared the body mass index (for weight loss) and HbA-1c (for blood sugar) of nearly 9,000 people with those of a group of about 35,000 people who did not have the disease. Researchers found that dramatic weight loss in people with pancreatic cancer began two years before they were diagnosed.
At the time of diagnosis, people with pancreatic cancer had an average BMI of about three units lower than those who did not have cancer. Elevated glucose levels were detected three years before the cancer was diagnosed.
The researchers' analysis showed that people with diabetes who are underweight have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer than people without diabetes. Increased glucose levels in people without diabetes were associated with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer than those without diabetes.
Need to keep an eye on changes
The results suggest that weight loss for no apparent reason, primarily (but not exclusively) should be monitored in people with diabetes. In addition, increased glucose levels should be considered an alarm bell for pancreatic cancer.
These changes could be important for health screening that, if monitored regularly, could help doctors identify people who were not diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. These people can then be referred to a specialist in the hospital for an abdominal scan to check for cancer.
The advantage of early detection of the disease is that it reduces the chances of cancer spreading and helps to ensure that patients are fit enough to face treatment.
Effective way to save lives
In their study, the researchers looked at average rates. This will make it important in the future to study the data more deeply and examine individuals or groups of people who are more likely to experience weight loss and increased glucose levels. This approach can then focus on helping those in need.
The researchers also want to look at this information through a more complex tool (algorithm) that doctors can use. Using weight and glucose together, and potentially including other major symptoms of pancreatic cancer (dark urine, pale stools, pale skin), is more potent than looking at each of these measures separately. Such a device could be an effective way to improve early diagnosis and save lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment