Post-pancreatitis diabetes mellitus and excess intra-pancreatic fat deposition as harbingers of pancreatic cancer.

Progress in the fight against pancreatic cancer has been hampered by many factors. One of them is the inability to detect the disease early in overwhelming majority of patients. The present paper outlines a novel way in which progress could be accelerated. This includes a focus on two harbingers-post-pancreatitis diabetes mellitus and excess intra-pancreatic fat deposition-that converge at affecting the tumor macroenvironment and microenvironment specifically in the pancreas, not other organs. The two entities have the potential to be incorporated into future screening strategies with a view to early detecting of pancreatic cancer.