Cancer of the pancreas

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an uncommon but often rapidly lethal malignancy. Worldwide, PC is the twelfth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the seventh most common for cancer deaths. Globally, the estimated number of incident cases (338,000) and deaths from PC (330,400) were almost identical in 2012 Etiologic research on PC is complicated by the relatively inaccessible location of the pancreas, obstacles to early diagnosis, aggressiveness and resistance to therapy of these malignancies, and the tendency of PC to progress rapidly. Until recently, the only etiologic factors considered to be definite causes of PC were Tobacco use, chronic pancreatitis, and several rare high-penetrance genetic disorders. In the past decade, the evidence for other causal relationships has strengthened, especially for metabolic risk factors (obesity, type II diabetes mellitus, insulin and insulin-like growth factor), chronic local inflammation, heavy alcohol consumption, dietary consumption of grilled meat, and non-O ABO blood type.