Smoking May Trigger Pancreatic Cancer

Tobacco may serve as an environmental trigger for patients with an inherited genetic predispostion to pancreatic cancer, according to a new study in the December 15, 2004, issue of Cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is rare and poorly studied. It is known that it is an aggressive cancer, with a five-year survival of only 4%. A small percentage of patients with pancreatic cancer have first-degree relatives with pancreatic cancer. Smoking has been identified as the single most-important risk factor in familial pancreatic adenocarcinoma (FPAC), but the genetic component of the disease has remained a mystery.

The study consisted of a retrospective review of 826 patients with pancreatic cancer. Researchers found that 30 of these had the familial form. This group tended to be younger and to have a history of smoking. Specifically, about 87% of FPAC patients smoked, while only 66% of those with sporadic pancreatic cancer smoked.

"Patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer must be strongly counseled against smoking, and smokers with a family history of pancreatic cancer should be informed of their increased risk and offered enrollment into a smoking cessation program,” concluded the authors of the study, led by Ted A. James, M.D., of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo (NY, USA