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bioRxiv

High pancreatic precancer burden linked to type 2 diabetes

The 39 pancreas sections (10%) with unusually high precancer burden came disproportionately from human donors with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

Paper by V. Matos-Romero, D. Higuera-Garrido, W.-C. Chen, +9 more authorsA. L. Kiemen · Johns Hopkins University
Pancreatic tissue with crowded, folded abnormal ducts amid dense scar fibers and immune cells, beside a smaller region of sparse, orderly ducts.

Our read

Biomarkers
Studied:
Preprint: cross-sectional study of adult pancreas donors, against donors without type 2 diabetes
What changed:
High pancreatic precancer burden was more common among donors with type 2 diabetes than among other donors
The catch:
Subsequent pancreatic cancer development was not measured
In the record:
The 2,378th paper on hypertension with results in people; 10,107 on record in all.
Why it’s aging research:
Change across ages, or exceptional longevity.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Human pancreas donors aged 21 to 70 provided tissue for an observational study of precancer burden and pancreatic composition. The researchers used a deep-learning tool to analyze 410 pancreas sections. They also related tissue composition to gene activity in 281 donors.

Precancerous changes called pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia were present in 83% of donors. Median precancer burden did not change with age, and most donors carried little precancer at any age. Sections with unusually high burdens came disproportionately from donors with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. These sections also had a greater share of stroma, the tissue that supports other pancreatic cells. They had higher densities of immune cells and fibroblasts, cells that make connective tissue.

Why it matters

Pancreatic cancer risk rises with age. The authors argue that measuring precancer burden, rather than its presence alone, could help distinguish groups already under consideration for pancreatic surveillance.

Caveats

Tissue measurements at one point in time could not show whether higher precancer burden predicted pancreatic cancer. The preprint has not been peer-reviewed.

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