High blood sugar may increase risk for pancreatic cancer

July 24 (UPI) -- Pancreatic cancer risk may be directly related to elevated blood sugar levels, a new research shows.

The findings, based on an analysis of medical records by researchers in South Korea, were published Wednesday in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"Diabetes is one of the established risk factors for pancreatic cancer," Cheol-Young Park, a researcher of Kangbuk Samsung and study corresponding author, said in a news release. "When we evaluated the pancreatic cancer incidence according to fasting glucose levels using a national cohort database, we found the number of pancreatic cancer cases rose as fasting glucose levels increased. This was true in people who had diabetes as well as those who did not."

The researchers used a database from the National Health Insurance Service in South Korea containing information for more than 25 million patients. They discovered the rate of pancreatic cancer increased drastically for diabetics, prediabetics and people within normal blood sugar levels.

The results of this study match up to previous research from the National Institutes of Health that also showed a link between sugar consumption and pancreatic cancer.

This year, 56,770 people receive a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and 45,750 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

"Our research implies that early detection of hyperglycemia in health checkups and lifestyle modification to improve glucose profile might offer a critical opportunity for lowering the risk of pancreatic cancer," Park said.