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Review
. 2022 Jul 7;28(25):2881-2889.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i25.2881.

Incretin based therapy and pancreatic cancer: Realising the reality

Varun Suryadevara  1 , Ayan Roy  2 , Jayaprakash Sahoo  3 , Sadishkumar Kamalanathan  1 , Dukhabandhu Naik  1 , Pazhanivel Mohan  4 , Raja Kalayarasan  5
Affiliations
Review

Incretin based therapy and pancreatic cancer: Realising the reality

Varun Suryadevara et al. World J Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Incretin-based therapies like glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors help maintain the glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with additional systemic benefits and little risk of hypoglycaemia. These medications are associated with low-grade chronic pancreatitis in animal models inconsistently. The incidence of acute pancreatitis was also reported in some human studies. This inflammation provides fertile ground for developing pancreatic carcinoma (PC). Although the data from clinical trials and population-based studies have established safety regarding PC, the pathophysiological possibility that low-grade chronic pancreatitis leads to PC remains. We review the existing literature and describe the relationship between incretin-based therapies and PC.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor; Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist; Incretin; Pancreatic Cancer; Pancreatitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart explaining the mechanism of development of pancreatic cancer. IGF-1: Insulin-like growth factor-1; K-RAS: Kirsten rat sarcoma virus gene.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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