Rise in pancreatic cancer tied to better detection, study suggests

Rise in pancreatic cancer tied to better detection, study suggests 
Becker's Hospital Review; by Elizabeth Gregerson; 11/19/24 
The rise in pancreatic cancer diagnoses can be attributed to previously undetected disease and not a rise in cancer occurrence, according to a study published Nov. 19 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers from Boston-based Brigham and Woman's Hospital and Austin, Texas-based Dell Medical School analyzed U.S. Cancer Statistics and National Vital Statistics System data of adults aged 15-39 from between 2001 and 2019 for the study. Here are five notes from their findings:

1. Over the study period, pancreatic cancer incidence increased from 3.3 to 6.9 per million for women and from 3.9 to 6.2 per million for men.
2. Despite the increase of incidence, pancreatic cancer mortality remained stable over the study period at 1.5 deaths per million for women and 2.5 deaths per million for men.
3. Most of the increase in incidence was attributable to early-stage diagnosis and smaller pancreatic tumors.
4. The increase was also attributable to less common endocrine and solid pseudopapillary cancers as opposed to adenocarcinoma, the most common type of pancreatic cancer.
5. "If cancer occurrence is truly increasing, incidence and mortality would be expected to increase concurrently, as would early- and late-stage diagnoses," the study authors wrote. "Increasing cancer incidence may not reflect increased true cancer occurrence but instead increased diagnostic scrutiny."