Perusing the Pancreas
I recently got the opportunity to spend a pair of summers working on a research project at a hospital just outside of Boston. The goal was to investigate diabetes and pancreatic cancer, and see how new-onset, or previously undiagnosed, diabetes might be an indication of pancreatic cancer. The study is not yet published and the data is being analyzed as this essay is written. Nonetheless, the science behind diabetes and pancreatic cancer is fascinating, and the topic is one that will be of increasing importance as lifespans increase and cancer becomes increasingly common. While I started this job almost entirely ignorant of the science behind what I would be studying, I found the topic fascinating, and I thought others would too. With that in mind, I thought a discussion of the science and literature I studied might be of interest to the population at large. [Read more…] about Perusing the Pancreas