LOS ANGELES (May 23, 2006) Heart disease and diabetes are among the most common conditions plaguing Americans today, and they are related to a host of other diseases. Research presented today at Digestive Disease Week 2006 (DDW) now also demonstrates that these conditions can be warning signs for some types of digestive cancers, and may lead to early screening and interventions that may help prevent the onset of cancer or lead to earlier detection and treatment. Furthermore, certain treatments for these diseases may actually reduce digestive cancer risk. DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.

"The presence of diabetes or heart disease can be a signal for clinicians to evaluate patients' risk for digestive cancers," said Randall W. Burt, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine and Interim Executive Director, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. "The associations between these two diseases and cancer, as shown in these studies, provide a critical tool to diagnose cancer early when patients might benefit most from treatment. These studies also suggest that certain treatments for heart disease, in particular ACE inhibitors, may reduce the risk of colon, pancreatic and esophageal cancers."

Resectability of Pre-Symptomatic Pancreatic Cancer and its Relationship to Onset of Diabetes: A Retrospective Review of CT Scans and Fasting Glucose Values Prior to Diagnosis [Abstract 952]

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, claiming the lives of nearly 32,000 people in the United States each year. With few visible symptoms, pancreatic cancer is often difficult to catch early and many patients are not diagnosed until the cancer is too advanced for surgery.

Up to 80 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are diabetic and research now suggests that a recent
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Contact: Aimee Frank
newsroom@gastro.org
301-941-2620
American Gastroenterological Association
23-May-2006

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