Longitudinal Body Composition Changes ID'd Before Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

TUESDAY, Oct. 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with longitudinal changes in body composition prior to diagnosis, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in Pancreatology.Aleksander M. Bogdanski, from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a retrospective, multicenter case-control study involving adults diagnosed with PDAC with abdominal computed tomography (CT) imaging within 36 months before diagnosis. Controls were selected from CT-imaged individuals and matched to cases on age, sex, and diabetes status in a 2:1 ratio (1,825 cases and 3,650 controls). The skeletal muscle index (SMI), visceral fat index (VFI), and subcutaneous fat index (SFI) were quantified using deep learning-based segmentation.The researchers found that during the 36 months preceding diagnosis, PDAC cases exhibited steeper declines in SFI (−0.53 cm2/m2/month) and VFI (−0.37 cm2/m2/month) than controls, while SMI differences emerged within the final 12 months (−0.28 cm2/m2/month). In individual-level analyses with 581 cases and 581 controls, there were longitudinal changes in SMI, SFI, and VFI, which moderately discriminated cases from controls (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.76); performance was mainly driven by changes occurring closer to diagnosis."Pancreatic cancer often develops silently, making early detection extremely challenging," senior author Yan Bi, M.D., Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, said in a statement. "These findings suggest that routine CT scans may capture physiological changes associated with pancreatic cancer before patients are diagnosed."Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required).Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Longitudinal Body Composition Changes ID'd Before Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

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