The most common pathology affecting the pancreas is excess intra-pancreatic fat deposition (IPFD), often called fatty pancreas disease (FPD) — a disorder experienced by roughly one fifth of the world’s population. Although it is more common than type 2 diabetes, pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer combined, it has remained relatively obscure.
By contrast, fatty liver — once called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and recently renamed metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) — is well-known.
“When it comes to diseases of the liver and pancreas, the liver is the big brother that has gotten all the attention, while the pancreas is the neglected little stepbrother that’s not sufficiently profiled in most medical textbooks and gets very little attention,” Max…