Scientists at Boston Medical Center have found a surprising connection between gallstones and a deadly type of pancreatic cancer called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
Their research shows that people diagnosed with PDAC were six times more likely to have had gallstone disease in the year before their cancer diagnosis.
This new finding could help doctors detect pancreatic cancer earlier and improve treatment outcomes.
PDAC is the most common and most dangerous form of pancreatic cancer, making up more than 90% of all cases. One reason it is so deadly is that it’s often discovered too late, when it has already spread and is harder to treat. Because symptoms usually don’t show up until the disease is advanced, it has a very low survival rate.
Gallstones are small, hard deposits that form in the gallbladder, a small organ located just below the liver. The gallbladder stores bile, a fluid that helps the body digest fats. Gallstones form when the chemical balance of bile changes. These stones can range in size from a grain of sand to the size of a golf ball.
Many people with gallstones never have symptoms. But when symptoms do appear, they may include pain in the upper abdomen, nausea, or problems with digestion.
The study was presented at the 2022 Digestive Disease Week conference and included data from nearly 19,000 people with pancreatic cancer and almost 100,000 people without it. The researchers looked at how many people had gallstone disease in the year leading up to a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
They found that:
– 4.7% of pancreatic cancer patients had gallstone disease
– 1.6% had their gallbladders removed
In comparison, among people without cancer:
– Only 0.8% had gallstones
– Just 0.3% had their gallbladders removed
These numbers suggest that gallstones could be an early warning sign of pancreatic cancer. But it’s important to know that gallstones do not cause pancreatic cancer. Instead, the presence of gallstones might be a sign that something else is going wrong in the body—something that could lead to cancer.
Early detection is very important in pancreatic cancer because treatment is more likely to work when the disease is found early. If doctors notice that a patient has recently developed gallstone disease, they might decide to monitor that person more closely for signs of pancreatic cancer.
Gallstones are common, especially in:
– People over the age of 40
– Women
– People who are overweight
Most people with gallstones will not develop pancreatic cancer. But this study suggests that doctors should take note when someone develops gallstones and consider it a possible warning sign.
Researchers now want to learn more about why gallstones and pancreatic cancer are linked. They hope to find patterns in medical scans or blood tests that could help them identify people at higher risk of cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to find early, but this study gives doctors a new clue. Watching for recent gallstone disease may help them find pancreatic cancer sooner, when it’s easier to treat.
This research also shows the importance of paying attention to small changes in health. Even something as common as gallstones might be a sign of something more serious. That’s why continued research and careful monitoring are so important.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about Catching the silent killer: a new study on esophageal cancer and findings of New trick knocks out tough guy prostate cancer.
For more information about cancer, please read studies about Scientists find important cause of pancreatic cancer and findings of Scientists find a big cause of liver cancer.
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