HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Oct. 25, 2021 (HealthDay News) — In his work with patients who have family history.
“We do have a well-defined, but a small, group of high-risk patients. For those, we tend to screen annually. We tend to do , CT scans and endoscopic ultrasound,” Gaddam explained. “These are different modalities of testing on these patients to detect cancer, but for the vast majority of the general population, really not too many things to go by.”
Risk factors can include obesity or , but they are not fairly strong predictors for pancreatic cancer, Gaddam said. Doctors also look for jaundice with no abdominal pain, profound, unexplained weight loss or a new diagnosis of diabetes.
Questions remain
“Obviously not all causes of a new diagnosis of diabetes are cancer, or not everyone that has weight loss has pancreas cancer. So, we have to be really careful about that, but we look for these subtle tell-tale signs when we talk to our patients,” Gaddam said.
Many people with pancreatic cancer have very vague symptoms in the beginning, such as minor abdominal discomfort or indigestion, said Dr. Sajan Nagpal, an assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Chicago. Nagpal was not involved in this study.
Longstanding diabetes and chronic are other risk factors.
By the time the cancer is detected, 80% of patients are no longer eligible for surgery, the only way to cure the cancer, Nagpal said. Other treatments include chemotherapy and .
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Nagpal suggested more research, using larger databases and hospital-based outpatient oncology data to potentially corroborate this study and provide information about why this might be happening.
Gaddam also called for more research.
“I think this shows a potentially alarming trend and we need to put, as a society, more investment into this area to stem this rise,” Gaddam said. “I think it calls for more research, more research dollars, more women should be speaking out for research in this area. And I’d say if there’s anybody out there that’s worried about pancreas cancer in their family, or if they see a trend, they should talk to their doctor about it.”
More information
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has more on pancreatic cancer.
SOURCES: Srinivas Gaddam, MD, gastroenterologist and assistant professor, medicine, Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles; Sajan Nagpal, MBBS, assistant professor, medicine, and director, Pancreas Clinic, University of Chicago; Journal of the American Medical Association, Oct. 24, 2021, online; Oct. 24, 2021, presentation, American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting, Las Vegas