Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention

New Study Claims that 2 Sodas Per Week Increases Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Two soft drinks a week may double the risk of getting pancreatic cancer, according to a recent study.

The soda industry strongly disagreed with the study, calling it flawed and showing other research that did not find an association between soda drinking and pancreatic cancer.

”People who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87% increased risk – or nearly twice the risk – of pancreatic cancer compared to individuals consuming no soft drinks,” says study lead author Noel T. Mueller, MPH, a research associate at the Cancer Control Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research has published the study.

Cancer of the pancreas was found in over 40,000 people in America in 2009, according to American Cancer Society estimates, and about 35,000 deaths from the disease were expected. The pancreas lies beneath the stomach and creates the hormone insulin to balance blood sugar. It also produces juices with enzymes in order to break down fats and proteins.

Video on pancreatic cancer

Prior studies showed mixed conclusions as to the connection of of soft drinks boosts the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Mueller and his associates studied 60,524 men and women enrolled in a Singapore Chinese Health Study, which began in the early 1990’s, for up to 14 years, to observe their diet and whether they got cancer.

They asked all participants about food intake, including sodas and juices. Mueller says the researchers didn’t ask specifically about diet soda consumption, but that most of the soda drunk was regular or sweetened.

In Singapore at that time, Mueller says, there was very little intake of diet soda.

“We followed the participants for 14 plus years, keeping track of different cancers,” he tells WebMD.

They found 140 cases of pancreatic cancer and looked back to see if there was an association with sodas or juices.

The researchers divided the consumption of sodas and juices into three categories: none, less than two servings a week, or two or more servings a week.

Those who drank two or more a week — the average number was five — had the 87% increased risk, Mueller tells WebMD.

No link was found between juices and pancreatic cancer risk.

Why is there an association with soft drinks? Mueller says they are not certain. “What we believe is the sugar in the soft drinks is increasing the insulin level in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth. That increase in insulin is what may be leading to the development of the cancer.”

His team adjusted for other risk factors, such as advancing age, smoking, diabetes, and body mass index. It is well known that the risk for pancreatic cancer rises with age.

Researchers have found a stem cell, a kind of master cell, that may cause at least some types of prostate cancer.

Their findings are only experimental — the stem cells were found in mice — but could explain at least some types of prostate cancer and eventually offer new ways to treat it, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The findings also show a potential new source for prostate tumors — so-called luminal cells, which secrete various compounds used in the prostate.

“The role of stem cells in the development of prostate cancer has been a focus of speculation for many years,” Dr. Helen Rippon of Britain’s Prostate Cancer Charity said in a statement.

“Importantly, this new stem cell does not rely on androgens — the male sex hormones that control prostate growth — to survive and grow. This may give a clue as to why prostate cancer often becomes resistant to treatments designed to regulate these androgens in the later stages of the disease,” added Rippon, who was not involved in the research.

“This improved knowledge will also be a step forward in learning how we might help to prevent the disease from developing in men in the first place.”

Michael Shen of Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues named the new stem cells CARNs, for castration-resistant Nkx3.1-expressing cells.

They normally regenerate part of the tissue that lines the inside of the gland, which produces semen. But the cells can also form tumors if certain genes meant to stop out-of-control growth get turned off.

Shen said researchers had believed that tumors arise from a different layer of cells in the prostate, called basal cells.

“Previous research suggested that prostate cancer originates from basal stem cells, and that during cancer formation these cells differentiate into luminal cells,” Shen said in a statement. “Instead, CARNs may represent a luminal origin for prostate cancer.”