Not medically trained here, just a patient...

Sudden-onset diabetes does happen sometimes in conjunction with pancreatic cancer. It happened with me. But it was not considered Type 2, although sometimes it happens this way. Type 2 is, iirc, the body being resistant to insulin you produce, and Type 1 is (iirc) the failure to produce insulin. Mine was labeled "Diabetes associated with pancreatic disease," but more similar to Type 1 than Type 2.

The jaundice made the pancreatic cancer more obvious in my case, pointing to a blocked common bile duct in the head of my pancreas, but if a different part of your pancreas is "malfunctioning," it might not block the duct. It's also possible the "malfunction" is a temporary issue affecting insulin production or something else.

Ask your doc for a couple of the basic tests: CA19-9 is the marker most closely associated with pancreatic cancer. CEA is another cheap and easy test that might suggest other related cancers. Ask if they can get you in for a germline genetic test as well (Invitae is one example) to see if you've inherited any mutations that make you more susceptible to pancreatic (or other cancers). The result could also help steer your treatment if you do have cancer and a mutation, or at least determine your risk and monitoring schedule if you have mutations without cancer.

There are other blood tests based on DNA that would be more expensive. You might have to self-pay for them if there's no obvious indication of cancer, but they can be useful. Guardant 360 and Grail's Galleri are two examples. Neither is approved by the FDA and neither is guaranteed sensitive enough to detect early stage PC, but they do offer data points you can collect to better understand your status and support or rebut the other diagnostics.

You should push for good imaging if possible. MRI with the pancreas protocol (MRCP) is probably the best non-invasive approach. An external ultrasound can get a decent picture of your liver, but not your pancreas. If there is a reason to get invasive, the next step is probably an endoscopic (internal) ultrasound (EUS with ERCP looking backward through the pancreas and common bile duct, possibly with a tissue biopsy which can determine if malignant cells are present.

If malignant cells are present, ask the surgeon (before the procedure, because it's general anesthesia and you'll be too groggy to remember afterward) if they can get enough tissue to send out for full NGS (next generation sequencing) of the DNA to see what genetic properties it has (mutations, etc) that might provide better guidance into your treatment. It's helpful to have this data as soon as possible, because if you do have cancer, they generally try and rush you into chemo right away w/o any more data guiding them.

I hope it all goes well for you, and hope this post doesn't scare you, but only provides you more information to be proactive with if necessary.

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