Brewer MJ, Doucette JT, Bar-Mashiah A, et al. - This study’s findings demonstrate that glycemic elevations and weight loss predate pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) diagnosis and these metabolic changes may imply an underlying PDAC.

• Researchers recruited a sum of 4,626 patients: 1,542 cases and 3,084 controls; the median age was 69.3 years, and 2487 (53.8%) were male; 751 cases (48.7%) were non-Hispanic White.

• Compared with controls, HbA1c was higher in patients with PDAC (P ≤ .02 for all), in the 3 years prior to diagnosis; a similar trend was seen for glucose values.

• They found greater BMI for patients with PDAC for all study periods, except 0 to 6 months prior to cancer diagnosis when BMI was lower (P < .01 for all).

• It was shown that change in BMI (ΔBMI) of cases at 1 year and 6 months before diagnosis was −0.59 and −1.21 when compared with −0.08 and 0.03 for controls (P < .01 for both).

• In multivariable logistic regression, data indicated that HbA1c slope (adjusted odds ratio, 1.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–1.76) and BMI slope (adjusted odds ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.65–0.87) were predictors of PDAC.