Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive malignant neoplastic diseases. The incidence and mortality rates of this disease vary depending on geographical area, which might be explained by the different exposure to risk factors. To improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, different approaches are needed for an earlier diagnosis. Identification of risk factors and implementation of screening strategies are essential for a better prognosis. Currently, the risk factors for pancreatic cancer fall into two broad categories, namely extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors include alcohol consumption, smoking, a diet rich in saturated fats, and viral infections such as chronic infection with hepatitis B and C viruses. The pathophysiological mechanisms explaining how these hepatotropic viruses contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer are not fully elucidated. The common origin of hepatocytes and pancreatic cells in the multipotent endodermal cells, the common origin of the blood vessels and biliary ducts of the pancreas and the liver, or chronic inflammatory changes may be involved in this interaction. A careful monitoring of patients with viral liver infections may contribute to the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and improve the prognosis of these patients.
Highlights
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive malignant neoplasms, with a 5-year survival rate of about 10% in the United States of America (USA) [1]
To improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, different approaches are needed for an earlier diagnosis
Viral infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are listed among the risk factors involved in the development of pancreatic cancer
Summary
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive malignant neoplasms, with a 5-year survival rate of about 10% in the United States of America (USA) [1]. One study estimates that approximately 11–32% of pancreatic cancer cases are associated with tobacco consumption [35,37] This risk increases with the number of packs per year, and it is higher in individuals who associate homozygous deletions of the gene for the enzyme that metabolizes glutathione S-transferase theta 1 (GSTT1) [38]. The detailed analysis of some studies that reported the correlation between these risk factors and pancreatic cancer highlighted the association of smoking with alcohol or coffee consumption, without being able to exclude a weak or false positive correlation between the last two factors and the development of this malignancy [41,42,43]. HBV and HCV are hepatotropic viral agents with oncogenic properties and they possess an ability to integrate their viral DNA/RNA into the genome of infected cells [52,53]
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