Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus has been claimed to be a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. CA 19-9 is known as a tumor marker for pancreatic cancer upper gastrointestinal tract, ovarian hepatocellular, and colorectal cancers, as well as in inflammatory conditions of the hepatobiliary system, biliary obstruction and in thyroid diseases.

Aim of the study: To evaluate the level of Ca19-9 in diabetic patients and the incidence of pancreatic cancer.

Material and methods: We enrolled in the study 59 subject diagnosed with diabetes. Patients diagnosed with any kind of cancer were excluded. Age, gender CA 19-9, HbA1c were measured.

Results: From a total of 59 patients 61.1% (36) were males and 38.9% (23) were female. Mean age was 56.8±10.6 years old\. Mean value of HbA1c was 8.4% normal value 4.8–6.1% and 40.6% were well controlled HbA1c under 7%; 15.2% were not well controlled HbA1c 7.1–8% and 44.2% were poorly controlled HbA1c over 8%. The average CA 19-9 level was 76.53±467.9 normal value <37 U/ml range (0.6–3608). 89.8% (53) patients had normal value of Ca 19-9 and 10.2% (6) had level over 37 U/ml with only one patient 1.69% diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Patients with higher level of CA 19-9 were the patients with higher level of HbA1c (average 11.7%) The value of R(Pearson coefficient correlation) is 0.6359 that it means for a moderate positive correlation between level of HbA1c and Ca 19-9. 16.6% of patients with high level of Ca 19-9 had pancreatic cancer.

Conclusion: This study showed that glycemic control influences level of CA 19-9 and it should be interpreted with regard to diabetes status and should be kept in mind as a confounder, therefor maybe its necessary to redefine the normal range of CA19-9 in diabetic patients. Incidence of pancreatic cancer was 1.69%.