Risk factors for pancreatic cancer ?

Pancreatic cancer

I’ve wrote about pankreatitis in my previous article. In this article I’ll share more detail about risk factors for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer

Risk factors for pancreatic cancer

There’s many risk factors for pancreatic cancer. Having a risk factor or even several risk factors does not mean that you will get the disease. Many people who get the disease may not have had any known risk factors. But we can prevent if there’s a risk factors for pancreatic cancer such as :-

Age
– The risk of having pancreatic cancer also depend on people age. Almost patient are older than 45. Nearly 9 in 10 are at least 55 years old and almost 7 in 10 are at least 65 years old.

Gender
Men are 30% more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than women especially for those smoking.

Race
African Americans are more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than whites. The reasons for this are not clear.

Cigarette smoking
Smoker highly risk getting pancreatic cancer at least twice. Scientist think the chemicals in cigarette smoke that enter the blood and damage the pancreas.
| STEPS TO STOP SMOKING |

Obesity and physical activity
Obesity could become risk factor for pancreatitic cancer. Studies show that physical activity and the risk of pancreatic cancer have had mixed results.

Diabetes
People who have diabetes have big risk to get exocrine panceatic cancer. It is not clear if people with type 1 diabetes have a higher than average risk.

Chronic pancreatitis
Chronic pancreatitis is a long term inflammation of the pancreas. This condition is linked with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer but most patients with pancreatitis never develop pancreatic cancer. Many smokers have the link between chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

Cirrhosis of the liver
Cirrhosis of the liver may develops liver damage from things like hepatitis and alcohol use. People with cirrhosis seem to have an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.

Occupational exposure
Heavy exposure at work to certain pesticides, dyes, and chemicals used in metal refining may increase the risk of developing the cancer

Family history
The disease seems to run in some families as it inherited syndrome.

Genetic syndromes
Inherited gene mutations are abnormal copies of certain genes that can be passed from parent to child. It cause 10% of pancreatic cancers and can cause other problems as well.

For more info : Pancreatic cancer risk factors