CAUSES OF PANCREATIC CANCER

The causes of Pancreatic Cancer remain unknown.

It's not clear what causes pancreatic cancer in most cases. Doctors have identified factors, such as smoking, that increase your risk of developing the disease.
Scientists don't know exactly what causes most pancreatic cancers, but they have found several risk factors that can make a person more likely to get this disease. Some of these risk factors affect the DNA of cells in the pancreas, which can result in abnormal cell growth and may cause tumors to form.

Genetic factors

1- Approximately 10% of patients with pancreatic cancer have a family history of the disease.In some patients, pancreatic cancer develops as part of a well-defined cancer-predisposing syndrome for which germ-line genetic alterations are known.
2- The risk of pancreatic cancer is 57 times as high in families with four or more affected members as in families with no affected members. A subgroup of such high-risk kindred carry germ-line mutations of DNA repair genes such as BRCA2 and the partner and localizer of BRCA2 (PALB2).
Damage or changes in a person's DNA can lead to damage in the genes that control cell division.

Hereditary genetic changes pass down through a family. There is evidence that pancreatic cancer can run in families.

Other genetic changes happen because of exposure to an environmental trigger, for example, tobacco.

A person with certain genetic syndromes is more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.

These include:

hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome
melanoma
pancreatitis

Environmental toxins
Several environmental factors have been implicated, but evidence of a causative role exists only for tobacco use.
Substances that may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer include certain:

pesticides
dyes
chemicals used in metal refining
When the body comes into contact with a carcinogen, free radicals form. These damage cells and affect their ability to function normally. The result can be cancerous growths.

SMOKING AND OTHER FACTORS

Smokers have 6% increased risk and this increaseswith greater tobacco use and longer exposure to smoke.

>Limited data with increased incidence is available on the possible roles of moderate intake of alcohol, coffee, use of aspirin, history of diabetes or chronic pancreatitis, chronic cirrhosis, a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, and previous cholecystectomy.
> Morrecently, an increased risk has been observed among patients with blood type A, B, or AB as compared with blood type O.

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