Diabetes and Incidence and Prognosis of Surgical Malignancies

Abstract

It is well known that around 15% of the patients with pancreatic cancer develop diabetes mellitus (DM) prior to the detection of their malignancy. In our population of diabetic patients at the ErasmusMC we investigated whether we could identify patients with pancreatic cancer. In this relatively small population of around 2500 patients, we could not find enough patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but a high proportion of patients had other forms of cancer. Therefore we started to inquire the relation between DM and cancer incidence and cancer mortality. Over the past decades, wealth has increased and this has had its impact on the general health of the worldwide population and on health care as well. Below the major issues with regard to the changes in population health will be discussed in the light of this thesis.