Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Distant Relatives or the Close Ones?

Tumors are the charismatic pirated cells, which get distracted from the well-maintained metabolic route. In oncology, metabolic alterations in tumor cells, to adopt the challenging physiological condition, are emerging attraction for investigation. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the aggressive malignancy that develops in a nutrient-deficient, hypoxic and acid environment, by altering their biosynthetic machinery. Despite significant advances in the understanding of PDAC genetics, biology, and clinical behavior, PDAC is one of the dominating agents of cancer-related death in all over the world. The two major risk factors contributing to the incidence of PDAC are obesity and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). These three diseases are intricately related contributing to the cause and effect of one another. This chapter discusses the underlying mechanism of obesity and T2DM that leads to PDAC, mediated by various factors like redox stress, inflammation, insulin resistance, and β-cell mass degeneration. At the end, this chapter focuses on the therapeutic approach for PDAC, taking into account the two efficient branches of medicine which have recently gained much of attention, one being phytochemicals and the other, nanomedicines. Many epidemiological studies have already proved the anticancer activity of both the approaches, and ongoing researches are in favor too.