How common is pancreatic cancer, and what causes it?
Pancreatic cancer is the tenth most common cancer in humans and is the 4th leading cause of death from cancer, proving that it is one of the most lethal cancers. Most pancreatic cancers occur in the head or neck and a minority occurs in the tail, and these are good news as will be explained later.
Unlike other diseases, it isn’t always easy to put causes for cancers owing to the complexity of their development. Instead, we put a number of risk factors that interplay whether all or some of them to develop that specific type of cancer. In the case of pancreatic cancer, these risk factors include:
- Smoking: Smoking is the most identifiable risk factor for pancreatic cancer, and smokers are at increased risk of developing it the longer they smoke.
- Diabetes: Although the cause is not yet well known, diabetics are at an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
- Obesity: Although not as pronounced as smoking, obesity is a known risk factor for pancreatic cancer.
- Family history of pancreatic cancer: About one in ten cases of pancreatic cancer is related to family history.
- Alcohol consumption: Alcohol consumption is one of the risk factors, too, and it is not well known whether it is because of the alcohol itself or chronic pancreatitis, which is a chronic inflammation of the pancreas from several causes including alcohol.