Serious Causes And Risk Factors Of Pancreatic Cancer

Smoking

One of the biggest risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer is smoking cigarettes regularly. Around twenty percent of all cases of pancreatic cancer are attributed to smoking cigarettes. Individuals diagnosed with cancer who are smokers have a forty percent greater risk of dying from pancreatic cancer than a pancreatic cancer patient who does not smoke. The mechanisms that cause carcinogenesis in the pancreatic cells in an individual who is a smoker have not been studied extensively. However, the increased risk of carcinogenesis in the pancreas in regular smokers is thought to be related to the induction of chronic pancreatitis. Chronic pancreatitis causes damage to the pancreatic cells that have to be repaired or replaced. This damage increases the chance of a cancer-causing mutation to occur in the DNA of one of the pancreatic cells. When a mutation in the pancreatic cells causes them to grow and replicate out of control, the individual develops pancreatic cancer.

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