Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Ca 19-9 is a tumor-associated antigen. In this study, we aimed to compare Ca 19-9 levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and healthy control group.

Method: Two hundred and fifteen type 2 DM patients (82 male and 133 female) and 209 healthy control group (79 male, 130 female) age, sex and body mass index(BMI) matched were included in the study. Duration of diabetes, HbA1c and presence of complications were analyzed. Cases with high serum levels of Ca 19-9 (0–35 U/ml) were evaluated with abdominal MRI. A female patient with high serum Ca 19-9 was diagnosed as pancreas carcinoma and excluded from the study.

Results: Median Ca 19-9 in DM patients was 13.8 (0–302.8) and 7.53 (0.4–46.97) in control group and difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Number of cases with high serum Ca 19-9 levels in patients and control group were 45 and 2, respectively. The difference was again statistically significant (P<0.001). Considering all cases, Ca 19-9 levels were similar in both females and males (P=0.794). In DM patients, Ca 19-9 did not correlate with BMI, duration of diabetes or number of complications, however, it was found to be positively correlated with HbA1c levels (ρ=0.17, P=0.015). Ca 19-9 did not change with presence of nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy and number of complications (P=0.778, P=0.258, P=0.241 and P=0.457, respectively).

Conclusions: Chronic pancreatitis is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer, and the same is also true for diabetes. Ca 19-9 is used in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer but also a marker of pancreatic tissue damage that might be caused by diabetes. Therefore it is necessary to define the normal range of Ca 19-9 in type 2 diabetic patients in order to eliminate additional approaches. Therefore, diabetic patients have to be followed up for pancreatic cancer.