Abstract
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.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Lowenfels, A.B. et al. (1994). Chronic Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer: Are They Related?. In: Pederzoli, P., Cavallini, G., Bassi, C., Falconi, M. (eds) Facing the Pancreatic Dilemma. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79167-3_50
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79167-3_50
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