{
  "id": 15782872,
  "title": "Body composition changes on CT scans may help identify pancreatic cancer risk",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/body-composition-changes-on-ct-scans-may-help-identify-pancreatic",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-20T18:20:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-body-composition-ct-scans-pancreatic.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "A Mayo Clinic study has found that people who develop pancreatic cancer experience measurable changes in body composition years before diagnosis, which differ from those seen in similar individuals without cancer. The research, led by Aleksander Bogdanski and published in Pancreatology, analyzed abdominal CT scans from 1,825 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and 3,650 matched controls from Mayo Clinic sites in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota. The findings suggest that routinely acquired CT scans may capture physiological changes associated with pancreatic cancer before it is clinically detected, potentially aiding in early detection. Researchers found that patients who developed pancreatic cancer experienced steeper declines in visceral and subcutaneous fat over the three years before diagnosis compared with matched controls, with differences in muscle mass most apparent during the final 12 months before diagnosis.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}