Chronic Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer: Are They Related?

Little is known about the cause (or causes) of pancreatic cancer, a lethal gastrointestinal cancer that represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for physicians. There is nearly universal agreement that smoking increases the risk of pancreatic cancer [1–4], but the approximately tow-fold increased risk is much less that the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Alcohol, a well established risk factor for chronic pancreatitis, does not seem to be associated with pancreatic cancer [5]. A few cases of pancreatic cancer can be linked to industrial exposures to agents such as DDT [6]. Reduced consumption of certain dietary items, such as consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables may lead to the formation of pancreatic cancers, as they do against other tumors [7]. However, these known causes explain less than half of all known cases pancreatic cancer, suggesting that there are other causes which remain undetected.