Based on the latest
research data, about 30% of pancreatic cancer cases are thought to be a direct
result of cigarette smoking. People who smoke cigarettes are twice as likely to
develop pancreatic cancer as people who do not smoke cigarettes. Additionally,
the cancerous tumors that form as a result of cigarette smoking grow at an
accelerated rate and develop approximately 10 years earlier than tumors not
related to smoking.
Smoking and
Pancreatic Cancer
All the tobacco products - cigarettes, cigars, pipes and
chewing tobacco – have shown the clear tendency of the substantial increase in pancreatic
cancer risk. A large Cancer Research UK study looking at lifestyle factors
found that nearly 1 in 3 pancreatic cancers (about 30%) may be linked to
smoking.
Cigarette smoke contains chemicals called nitrosamines.
Nitrosamines are carcinogenic. They are found in some foods and drinks as well
as in cigarette smoke. Scientists are not exactly sure why smoking affects
pancreatic cancer risk, but they think it may be the nitrosamines.
In another study, researchers at Michigan State
University found that the chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco products
- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs - interfere with communication
between the body's cells. More importantly, the work showed that some of these
chemicals don't necessarily initiate the cancer, but rather contribute to the
promotion of it.
This research is the culmination of nearly 30 years of
work in James Trosko's lab at MSU. It was in 1979 that Trosko, colleagues and
students demonstrated that tumor-promoting chemicals interfered with a cell's
ability to communicate with other cells. Later, this group isolated adult human
pancreatic stem cells from human pancreatic tissue.
Subsequent published findings indicated that these stem
cells appeared to be targets for cancer.
In contrary, a new meta analysis research has shown that
exposure to second hand smoke does not increase pancreatic cancer risk.
Recent studies in Scandinavia have confirmed that chewing
snus (a type of smokeless tobacco) increases the risk of pancreatic cancer as
well.
Quitting smoking
can reduce your risk of contracting pancreatic cancer
Quitting smoking reduces the risk of developing and dying
from cancer. However, it takes a number of years after quitting for the risk of
cancer to start to decline. This benefit increases the longer a person remains
smoke free.
Some studies have estimated it can take up to 10 years
before the risk begins to decline. A European-wide prospective study in 2009
however, showed that risk is reduced to the levels of a non-smoker after just
five years of cessation.
Anyway, most researchers believe that quitting smoking
for ten years will eliminate this risk.
So, if you do not smoke, don't start. If you do, quit.
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