Tobacco and pancreatic cancer

This chapter reviews studies on the link between smoking and pancreatic cancer. Tobacco smoking is associated with a two-fold increased risk of pancreatic cancer and is responsible for approximately 20% of all pancreatic tumours. The risk is increasing with the amount of cigarette smoked and ten to fifteen years have to pass from quitting smoking until the risk falls to the level of a non-smoker. The risk seems to be higher for younger subjects and decreases to non-significant values among elderly people. Among individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer such as patients with hereditary pancreatitis, smoking further advances the age at which cancer develops.