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Review
. 2021 Aug 14;27(30):4939-4962.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i30.4939.

Diabetes and pancreatic cancer: Exploring the two-way traffic

Ayan Roy  1 , Jayaprakash Sahoo  2 , Sadishkumar Kamalanathan  1 , Dukhabandhu Naik  1 , Pazhanivel Mohan  3 , Raja Kalayarasan  4
Affiliations
Review

Diabetes and pancreatic cancer: Exploring the two-way traffic

Ayan Roy et al. World J Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is often associated with a poor prognosis. Long-standing diabetes mellitus is considered as an important risk factor for its development. This risk can be modified by the use of certain antidiabetic medications. On the other hand, new-onset diabetes can signal towards an underlying PC in the elderly population. Recently, several attempts have been made to develop an effective clinical tool for PC screening using a combination of history of new-onset diabetes and several other clinical and biochemical markers. On the contrary, diabetes affects the survival after treatment for PC. We describe this intimate and complex two-way relationship of diabetes and PC in this review by exploring the underlying pathogenesis.

Keywords: Chronic pancreatitis; Diabetes; New onset diabetes; Pancreatic adenocarcinoma; Pancreatic cancer; Type 3c diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic diagram depicting the interplay of various proposed factors leading to development of pancreatic cancer in long-standing diabetes mellitus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic diagram for the possible mechanism for the pathogenesis of new-onset diabetes mellitus in pancreatic cancer. IAPP: Islet amyloid polypeptide; MMIF: Macrophage migratory inhibiting factor; TGF-β: Transforming growth factor-beta.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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