Contribution of biomarkers for pancreatic cancer-associated new-onset diabetes to pancreatic cancer screening

Abstract

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PaC) is one of the deadliest types of tumor, and it is regarded as a fatal disease, with a 5-year survival rate less than 10%. Most clinical diagnoses for PaC are made at an advanced stage because of the insidious onset of the disease, which leads to an extremely poor prognosis.

Recent findings: The relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) and PaC has been established by several decades of research, and the prevalence of DM in patients with PaC has been reported to be 40%, with half of the patients having developed new-onset DM within 2 years or less. Increasing evidence suggests that new-onset DM is associated with a high prevalence of PaC, and PaC resection ameliorates DM. Therefore, screening for PaC may be needed in patients with newly developed DM.

Purpose: The objective of this review was to present our current understanding of biomarkers for PaC-associated new-onset DM (PCAND), to offer a perspective on the prospects and problems of using this strategy for early screening to differentiate PCAND from new-onset type 2 DM not associated with PaC and to suggest candidate biomarkers to use for PaC screening in patients with new-onset DM. Finding sensitive and specific biomarkers to manage these patients constitutes a challenge for the research community and for public health policies.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Early screening; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic cancer associated new-onset diabetes.