In a new study, researchers found that high blood sugar may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.
The research was conducted by a team from Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, Korea.
It is estimated 45,750 deaths will occur this year from pancreatic cancer, a disease in which healthy cells in the pancreas stop working correctly and grow out of control.
The five-year survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer is only 9%, because the disease is so difficult to diagnose and is often not found until later stages.
At that time, the cancer has spread from the pancreas to other parts of the body.
In the study, the team evaluated pancreatic cancer incidence in Korea according to blood sugar levels using a national cohort database of more than 25 million patients.
They found that as blood sugar levels rose, the rate of pancreatic cancer strongly increased not only in diabetic patients, but also in those with pre-diabetes or normal range of blood sugar levels.
This confirms high blood sugar level is one of the established risk factors for pancreatic cancer.
The risk of pancreatic cancer cases rose as fasting glucose levels increased. This is true in people who had diabetes as well as those who did not.
The team says early detection of high blood sugar in health checkups and lifestyle changes to improve blood sugar are very important for lowering the risk of pancreatic cancer.
One author of the study is Cheol-Young Park, M.D., Ph.D., from the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, Korea.
The study is published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
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