Abstract

BACKGROUND
Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumor and its incidence has been significantly increased. It has well been known that pancreatic cancer patients had high prevalence of diabetes mellitus. But it is still controversial if diabetes predispose pancreatic cancer or it is an epiphenomenon of pancreatic cancer. Thus, the aims of this study was to investigate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in pancreatic cancer patients in Korea, to characterize the diabetes mellitus in this situation, and to observe an association between the two conditions. METHOD: 275 pancreatic cancer patients admitted in Samsung Medical Center from January 1998 to December 2000 were selected for this study. We reviewed patients medical record and recorded diabetic history. Subjects who visited our Health Promotion Center in 1999 was used to evaluate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus. RESULT: 30% of pancreatic cancer patients had diabetes mellitus. 60% of diabetic pancreatic cancer patients had detected diabetes within recent two years. 25.6% of them had been known their diabetic state when they detected pancreatic cancer. There were no differences in smoking history, percent of distant metastasis, frequency of curative resection, and BMI between diabetic and nondiabetic pancreatic cancer patients. Significant weight loss was noted in pancreatic cancer patients with diabetes (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The prevalence rate of diabetes in pancreatic cancer patient was significantly high. Pancreatic cancer patients with diabetes presented with much profound weight loss. Furthermore, more than half of the pancreatic cancer patients with diabetes had recent onset diabetes. Further investigations would be necessary to elucidate causal relation in the pathogenesis of diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

• Keywords: Prevalence;Pancreatic cancer;Diabetes mellitus;