Gallstone Disease: Warning Sign of Pancreatic Cancer

Highlights:

Pancreatic cancer risk is nearly six times higher in people with gallbladder disease
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common pancreatic cancer that is diagnosed in late stages

Gallstone disease could be a warning sign for diagnosing the deadly pancreatic cancer, reveals a new research presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2022. //

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Patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) were six times more likely to have had gallstone disease within the year prior to diagnosis than non-cancer patients. PDAC is the most common pancreatic cancer, accounting for more than 90% of cases, and it is often fatal because it tends to be diagnosed in late stages.

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‘Early diagnosis of gallstone disease can help prevent and treat pancreatic cancer early.’

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“Pancreatic cancer can be difficult to diagnose and then chances of survival are slim. Our findings suggest that

gallstone disease may be a way to better diagnose this type of cancer – meaning we could save more lives,

” said Marianna Papageorge, MD, lead researcher on the study and research fellow at Boston Medical Center.

Link Between Gallstone Disease and Pancreatic Cancer

Using records in the SEER-Medicare database from 2008 to 2015, researchers identified 18,700 PDAC patients and compared them to an average of 99,287 patients per year from the same database.

In the year before diagnosis, 4.7 percent of the PDAC patients had a diagnosis of gallstone disease and 1.6 percent had their gallbladders removed.

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Among the non-cancer patients, only 0.8 percent had gallstones and only 0.3 percent had their gallbladders removal.

“

Gallstone disease does not cause pancreatic cancer

but understanding its association with PDAC can help combat the high mortality rate with pancreatic cancer by providing the opportunity for earlier diagnosis and treatment,” Dr. Papageorge said.

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Since many people have gallstones but do not develop pancreatic cancer, future research could look more closely at laboratory findings and imaging to see if there are specific factors related to gallbladder disease that could further distinguish which patients might have or develop pancreatic cancer, Papageorge said.

“It is such a terrible disease, and survival is so low,” Dr. Papageorge said.

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“People present at such advanced stages, so anything we can do to try to diagnose people earlier and make sure that they're getting curative treatment is crucial. This might be a key to better understanding next steps in screening, management and earlier diagnosis.”

Source-Eurekalert