Scientists at Boston Medical Center have made a surprising discovery: there may be a connection between gallstones and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a type of cancer that is one of the deadliest forms of pancreatic cancer.
PDAC makes up more than 90% of all pancreatic cancer cases, but the problem is that it is often not detected until it has reached advanced stages, making it very hard to treat. This is why the survival rate for PDAC is so low.
Gallstones, on the other hand, are much more common and usually harmless. They are small, hard lumps that form in the gallbladder, a small organ located beneath the liver that stores bile. Bile helps the body digest fat.
Gallstones develop when the substances in bile become imbalanced, and they can range in size from very tiny (as small as a grain of sand) to quite large (as big as a golf ball).
Many people with gallstones don’t even realize they have them. In some cases, however, gallstones can cause pain in the upper belly, nausea, or other digestive issues. But for the most part, they don’t cause serious problems and are often discovered by accident when doctors do scans for other reasons.
In the study from Boston Medical Center, scientists looked at the medical records of over 18,000 people diagnosed with PDAC and compared them to nearly 100,000 people without cancer.
What they found was very interesting: In the year before they were diagnosed with PDAC, 4.7% of the cancer patients had gallstones, and 1.6% had their gallbladder removed. By comparison, in the group without cancer, only 0.8% had gallstones, and just 0.3% had gallbladder surgery.
This means that people who were later diagnosed with PDAC were six times more likely to have had gallstones shortly before their cancer was found. These results were shared at a major medical conference in 2022, called Digestive Disease Week, where they generated a lot of attention.
However, the researchers are not saying that gallstones directly cause pancreatic cancer. Instead, they believe that gallstones could be an early warning sign of cancer. The idea is that gallstones might help doctors spot the cancer earlier, which is important because early detection is critical for better treatment and survival rates.
It is important to note that gallstones are very common, especially in people over 40, women, and those who are overweight.
However, just because someone has gallstones doesn’t mean they will get pancreatic cancer. In fact, most people with gallstones will never develop PDAC. But in rare cases, gallstones could signal that something more serious is happening in the body.
The scientists are continuing to investigate this link and are hoping to find patterns in lab tests or medical scans that could help doctors identify who is at a higher risk for pancreatic cancer.
By understanding these patterns, doctors might be able to look more closely at people with gallstones who also show other warning signs, giving them a better chance of early detection.
This research adds to the growing belief that common health problems, like gallstones, might sometimes provide important clues about more serious conditions. It also highlights how paying attention to even small changes in your health can help doctors identify problems earlier.
In the future, with more research, doctors may be able to use this information to catch pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage, which could save lives. Although there is still much to learn, this discovery gives hope that one of the most deadly cancers could be detected and treated more effectively in the future.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that artificial sweeteners are linked to higher cancer risk, and how drinking milk affects risks of heart disease and cancer.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and results showing vitamin D supplements strongly reduces cancer death.
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