Nature Communications (Jul 2023)

Adipose tissue and skeletal muscle wasting precede clinical diagnosis of pancreatic cancer

  • Ana Babic,
  • Michael H. Rosenthal,
  • Tilak K. Sundaresan,
  • Natalia Khalaf,
  • Valerie Lee,
  • Lauren K. Brais,
  • Maureen Loftus,
  • Leah Caplan,
  • Sarah Denning,
  • Anamol Gurung,
  • Joanna Harrod,
  • Khoschy Schawkat,
  • Chen Yuan,
  • Qiao-Li Wang,
  • Alice A. Lee,
  • Leah H. Biller,
  • Matthew B. Yurgelun,
  • Kimmie Ng,
  • Jonathan A. Nowak,
  • Andrew J. Aguirre,
  • Sangeeta N. Bhatia,
  • Matthew G. Vander Heiden,
  • Stephen K. Van Den Eeden,
  • Bette J. Caan,
  • Brian M. Wolpin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40024-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Patients with pancreatic cancer commonly develop weight loss and muscle wasting. Whether adipose tissue and skeletal muscle losses begin before diagnosis and the potential utility of such losses for earlier cancer detection are not well understood. We quantify skeletal muscle and adipose tissue areas from computed tomography (CT) imaging obtained 2 months to 5 years before cancer diagnosis in 714 pancreatic cancer cases and 1748 matched controls. Adipose tissue loss is identified up to 6 months, and skeletal muscle wasting is identified up to 18 months before the clinical diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and is not present in the matched control population. Tissue losses are of similar magnitude in cases diagnosed with localized compared with metastatic disease and are not correlated with at-diagnosis circulating levels of CA19-9. Skeletal muscle wasting occurs in the 1–2 years before pancreatic cancer diagnosis and may signal an upcoming diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.