ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2026
Prediagnostic prescription patterns in pancreatic cancer: a retrospective primary care cohort study.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundPrescribing patterns in primary care could demonstrate early clinical features of cancer and windows of opportunity for timely investigation.
aimTo analyse primary care prescription patterns before a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. DESIGN AND
settingRetrospective cohort study using linked primary care and cancer registry data from patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in England between 2011 and 2018.
methodPrescription records registered in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink were analysed in the 5 years prediagnosis. Eight categories of prescriptions that may be used to treat clinical features of pancreatic cancer were included (anti-emetics, anti-reflux medications, insulin, other hypoglycaemic agents, opioids, non-opioid analgesics, neuropathic analgesics, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories). Poisson regression was used to estimate the inflection points for increased prescribing above baseline.
resultsAmong 12 990 patients, 669 287 prescriptions were analysed. Insulin was the least common prescription (6.9% [
conclusionThe early increase in insulin prescribing suggests tumour-induced type 3c diabetes, highlighting an opportunity for earlier diagnosis in a small proportion of patients. Opportunities for earlier diagnosis through investigation and referral also exist in patients prescribed anti-emetic, anti-reflux, and analgesic medications in primary care.
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