Smoking Ups Hereditary Pancreatic Cancer: Study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People with two or more family members with pancreatic cancer should be encouraged to kick the habit as smoking may nearly quadruple their odds of developing the disease, researchers report.

Among people with a family history of pancreatic cancer, smoking appears to increase the risk of the disease even more in men and in people younger than age 50, according to the results of a new study.Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. An estimated 30,000 people will be diagnosed with the disease in 2003. Most people with pancreatic cancer do not have a family history of the illness, but about 10 percent of pancreatic cancer cases are hereditary, according to a report published in the journal Gastroenterology.Little is known about what factors might play a role in tumor formation in familial, or hereditary, pancreatic cancer, according to a team led by Dr. Stephen J. Rulyak of the University of Washington in Seattle.Previously, researchers identified a number of environmental factors, including smoking, that may increase the risk for non-familial pancreatic cancer, but such effects have not been evaluated for pancreatic cancer that runs in families, the authors report.To investigate, Rulyak’s team evaluated risk factors for pancreatic cancer among 251 individuals from 28 families. All families had at least two members with pancreatic cancer.Smoking was an independent risk factor for familial pancreatic cancer, with smokers being almost four times more likely to develop the disease than nonsmokers, the authors report.The risk was increased about five times in male smokers and more than seven times in smokers younger than 50.In addition, the researchers found that smokers developed cancer almost a decade earlier than nonsmokers — at an average age of 59.6 years versus 69.1 years.The researchers also found that the risk of cancer increased with the number of close relatives — mother, father, sister or brother — who had the disease. For each first-degree relative with pancreatic cancer, the risk rose by 40 percent.Although the pancreas produces the sugar-processing hormone insulin, diabetes was not a risk factor for pancreatic cancer, according to the report.’Overall, our results further highlight the dangers of cigarette smoking and emphasize the need for additional research focusing on gene-environment interactions in the genesis of pancreatic cancer,’ the authors conclude.The study received financial support from the National Institutes of Health, the C.D. Smithers Foundation, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the Italian Association for Cancer Research.(Source: Reuters, Fri May 16, 2003 01:58 PM ET )