Regular drinking could dramatically increase your risk of developing one of the world’s deadliest cancers, researchers have warned—and they believe they may have uncovered why.
A new study by scientists in Miami, US, found that high alcohol consumption damages the cells in the pancreas responsible for producing digestive enzymes.
This damage triggers inflammation, harming the organ—which plays a vital role in breaking down food and regulating blood sugar levels.
Over time, this inflammation can lead to pre-cancerous lesions.
These may progress into pancreatic cancer—a disease that kills more than 9,000 Britons and 50,000 Americans each year and has one of the worst survival rates of any cancer.
Heavy alcohol use is typically defined as eight or more drinks per week for women and 15 or more for men.
The team explained that for the condition to advance to cancer, there must also be a mutation in a gene called Ras, which controls cell growth.
In experiments, they found that alcohol combined with a pro-inflammatory molecule caused symptoms similar to alcohol-induced pancreatitis—an inflammatory condition.
A new study has revealed the link between alcohol and pancreatic cancer as well as a solution
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the least survivable forms of the disease and worryingly its on the rise. Source for data: Cancer Research UK
This process triggered the lesions and ultimately cancer itself, the researchers said.
The researchers also discovered they could stop pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions from forming in the pancreas—by disabling a specific gene called CREB, which plays a pro-inflammatory role.
The team found CREB acts like a ‘master controller’, capable of permanently reprogramming healthy pancreas cells into abnormal, pre-cancerous cells.
This paves the way for pancreatic cancer to develop.
Study co-author Dr Nipun Merchant, a surgeon in Miami, said that they believe their findings ‘lay the groundwork’ for future pancreatic cancer prevention.
The discovery comes amid a troubling rise in pancreatic cancer cases among younger people—although there has not yet been a spike in deaths.
The disease has a grim prognosis, with around 10 per cent of patients surviving the first year after diagnosis.
By three years, the survival rate drops to around one per cent.
Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly types, and kills roughly 90 percent of its victims, and has a survival rate after five years of around two percent or less
Pancreatic cancer has been dubbed a ‘silent killer’ due to its subtle signs that are often only spotted too late
Fewer than one in 20 pancreatic cancer patients live to see the decade after their diagnosis, according to UK figures.
So, it is incredibly important to catch the illness in its early stages by recognising the easy to dismiss symptoms.
These include weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain and changes in bowl habits and jaundice—the yellowing of the skin or eyes.
Pancreatic cancer is an umbrella term for various tumours found on the 25cm tadpole shaped organ that helps with digestion and hormone regulation.
The most common type which is called adenocarcinoma accounts for roughly 90 per cent of cases.
This variant has little-to-no symptoms until patients start suddenly losing weight and turn yellow and at which point for the vast majority, it is too late.
It is for this reason the heartbreaking disease has been dubbed a ‘silent killer’.
However, the surge in cases has come from another type of pancreatic cancer, called endocrine cancers.
These are slow growing tumours which take decades to emerge, and while they may turn cancerous, are mostly benign.
Some experts suspect that cancer isn’t appearing more often in young people, but there are better tools today to diagnosis it.
They put the surge down to an increased use of high-tech medical scans like CT and MRIs which have grown more sensitive.
According to the National Health Service (NHS) those more likely to get cancer are over 65s and those who have chronic pancreatitis or a family history of the cancer.
Other risk factors include smoking, being overweight or obese, diabetes, eating red and processed meat as well as blood group.
Source link
