medwireNews: Bariatric surgery is associated with a reduced prevalence of pancreatic cancer in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes, suggest findings from a population-based study presented at UEG Week Virtual 2020.
Among nearly 1,500,000 patients included in the study, the prevalence of pancreatic cancer was significantly higher in those with predisposing diabetes and obesity (BMI >35 kg/m2) who did not undergo bariatric surgery than in their counterparts who did, at 0.32% versus 0.19%.
The patients were identified from the “Explorys” US database, which spans 40 healthcare systems and over 200 hospitals, over a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019. They comprised two cohorts, one of 10,620 individuals who had undergone weight loss surgery, including Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy, and 1,418,950 individuals who had not.
In all, 20 patients who received bariatric surgery developed pancreatic cancer, compared with 4550 of those who did not.
Commenting on the findings, presenter Aslam Syed, from the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, USA, noted that the majority of patients in the bariatric surgery group were female (73%) and younger than 65 years of age (79%), adding that as multivariable analysis could not be performed due to de-identified data, confounding bias may be present.
He also noted that they “did not subset other possible risk factors of pancreatic cancer, including potential genetic syndromes.”
Nevertheless, Syed concluded: “We advise that clinicians should be conscious of bariatric surgery in eligible patients with metabolic disorders and metabolic syndrome.”
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