Consumption in excess of sugary food and drink on a daily basis could lead to pancreatic cancer according to new research by a Swedish institute, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers at the Karolinksa Institute started the study on pancreatic cancer in 1997 by conducting a survey on the eating habits of 80,000 men and women in the age group of 45 to 83.
This group was kept under observation till June 2005. 131 members of the group died of pancreatic cancer during this period. Researchers found a link between the amount of sugar in the diet and the risk of contracting the disease.
They found that people who drank fizzy or carbonated drinks at least twice a day or more increased their risk of developing the disease by 90 per cent against those who did not consume these drinks.
Those people who added sugar to their coffee, tea or other beverages at least five times a day increased their risk by 70 per cent as compared to those who did not add sugar.
People who ate creamed fruit, a dessert with high quantity of sugar and fruit, only once a day also increased their risk of contracting the disease by 50 per cent as compared to those who did not have such desserts.
The study does not distinguish between the different kinds of fizzy drinks but considers all drinks that are soda based or syrup based as risky. Consuming sugar in foods or drinks five times a day was also seen as a cause for the cancer. The scientists have not been able to give an exact reason why a high sugar intake causes pancreatic cancer.
They presume that a diet high on sugar disturbs the glucose metabolism of the body. This causes the pancreas to secrete more insulin to combat that effect. The effort to keep secreting more insulin could cause growth of the pancreas which then develops into cancer.
There is a greater need for more intense research in this field as pancreatic cancer is a very dangerous form of the cancer. Most people diagnosed with the disease don't even survive five years after the diagnosis because it is usually detected very late. Even tumors in pancreas don't show up easily as pancreas is situated quite deep in the body.
Even among those who get treated on time only 2 per cent survive five years after the start of the treatment. But doctors are of the opinion that if patients undergo chemotherapy after surgery life times could be prolonged.
Most pancreatic cancer cases occur in people over the age of 60 and pancreatic cancer is diagnosed more often in developed countries.
