Irving, TX – Pancreatic cancer comes about when cells in the pancreas start to mutate. These mutations make the cells to grow unruly. They amass to form a tumor, often malignant, eventually leading to metastases and, ultimately, death.

“When pancreatic cells undergo damage to their DNA, the abnormality causes the cells to grow and divide at a rapid rate,” says Dr. Echt. “This results in a fatality. In the end, cancer cells emanating from the pancreas spread to other areas of the body. Pancreatic cancer is very aggressive and can be catastrophic if not caught at its earliest stages.”

The causes of pancreatic cancer are diverse, but in many cases, no one risk factor can match a person’s diagnosis.

However, some of the factors that can heighten a person’s risk for developing pancreatic cancer include:

• Smoking. It is the most robust link to lifestyle and pancreatic cancer. Research has shown that most smokers have nearly double the risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

• Obesity. A lifestyle of poor diet and inactivity can highly increase a person’s risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

• Diabetes. Information regarding diabetes/pancreatic cancer connection is still inadequate. While there’s no proof as of now that those with diabetes are at higher risk for developing pancreatic cancer, the two conditions have mutuality according tothe recent research.

• Genetics. The history of a family does appear to play a role in pancreatic cancer. Approximately five to ten percent of pancreatic cancer patients also have a family member that has the disease.

“There continue to be significant research dollars invested in finding out as much about how the disease develops as possible,” says Dr. Echt.

About The Sandler-Kenner Foundation

The Sandler-Kenner Foundation, established in 2007 as the Las Colinas Cancer Center Foundation, was renamed in early 2011 in the memory of Michael Sandler and Peter Kenner, both of whom passed away from pancreatic cancer, a lethal disease that is difficult to diagnose until it has reached an advanced stage.

Visit them at https://helpfightpancreaticcancer.org/research/ to know more.