Researchers Say This Unexpected Body Change Could Be an Early Warning Sign of Pancreatic Cancer
In the United States, an estimated 67,530 new cases of pancreatic cancer and 52,740 deaths are projected for 2026. The disease is often diagnosed in its later stages, when treatment becomes more difficult. But according to a new study published in Pancreatology, people who develop pancreatic cancer experience measurable changes in body composition, including losses in body fat and muscle, appearing in the months and years before a diagnosis. Ultimately, the findings suggest that routine CT scans may capture physiological changes associated with pancreatic cancer before ever being clinically detected.
Researchers analyzed abdominal CT scans from 1,825 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and compared them with scans from people of similar ages and health backgrounds who didn’t have the disease. The scans, which were taken within three years before diagnosis, allowed researchers to track changes in skeletal muscle, visceral fat, and subcutaneous fat. Visceral fat is stored deep in the abdomen around internal organs, whereas subcutaneous fat sits just beneath the skin.
Over the three years leading up to a diagnosis, people who developed pancreatic cancer experienced greater losses in both types of body fat than those who didn’t develop the disease. Muscle loss also became more pronounced in the final 12 months before diagnosis.
“Pancreatic cancer often develops silently, making early detection extremely challenging,” says Yan Bi, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study. “These findings suggest that routine CT scans may capture physiological changes associated with pancreatic cancer before patients are diagnosed.”
Researchers then examined whether these changes could help identify people with pancreatic cancer. They found that changes in body fat and muscle could moderately distinguish people who developed the disease from those who did not, with strongest signals appearing closer to diagnosis.
“Our study shows that body composition changes associated with pancreatic cancer are detectable on routine CT scans and differ from the changes observed in similar patients without cancer,” says Michael Wallace, MD, a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic and corresponding author of the study. “To our knowledge, this is the largest controlled study to evaluate these prediagnostic body composition trajectories and one of the first to assess whether they can help distinguish patients who go on to develop pancreatic cancer from those who do not.”
Researchers are now working to develop tools that combine body composition changes with other routine medical data and imaging findings to help identify people who may be at higher risk of pancreatic cancer.
Related: 12 Weeks of Weightlifting After 60 Improves Something Unexpected, Researchers Say
Sources
- Cancer Stat Facts: Pancreatic Cancer. National Cancer Institute
- Longitudinal body composition changes distinguish pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma from controls in a pre-diagnostic CT cohort. Pancreatology, 2026
- Body composition changes on CT scans may help identify pancreatic cancer risk. Mayo Clinic, 2026
source https://www.mensjournal.com/health/study-changes-in-body-composition-found-on-ct-scans-identify-pancreatic-cancer-risk
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