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Risk Factors for Pancreatic Cancer

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Textbook of Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Several risk factors are associated with pancreatic cancer of varying evidence strength. Risk factors with moderate to strong evidence include tobacco smoking, chronic pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus, obesity, poor oral hygiene, high alcohol consumption, a Western dietary pattern and having a non-O blood group. Of these, tobacco smoking account for the highest attributable fraction due to its high prevalence in the general population. Protective risk factors with moderate to strong evidence include allergy and a healthy dietary pattern. In this chapter, a brief description of the evidence and associations of the most well-established risk factors of pancreatic cancer are reviewed. The concept of Mendelian randomization studies to estimate causality is presented as well as the concept of genome-wide and transcriptome-wide association studies.

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Franklin, O., Sund, M. (2021). Risk Factors for Pancreatic Cancer. In: Søreide, K., Stättner, S. (eds) Textbook of Pancreatic Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53786-9_1

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