• Question: What causes pancreatic cancer?

    Asked by abichohan to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Hey abichohan,

      Cancer is when normal cells divide without control and much faster then normal, and become ‘abnormal cells’. There are lost of different types of cancer and we know the cause of some of them. Skin cancer is caused by harmful radiation. Tobacco smoke causes lung and throat cancer. The problem is there can sometimes be so many competing effects that we don’t know why some people get cancer and others don’t.

      Pancreatic cancer is when cells in the pancreas undergo this abnormal division. Scientists don’t know what causes this type of cancer but there are lots of ‘risk factors’ that could increase the risk of you getting it. These include genetics, smoking, age, obesity, high sugar diets. That doesn’t mean that you will definitely get pancreatic cancer if you have all of the risk factors, but you are more likely.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Hi abichohan,

      All I can add to Nuala’s answer is that sadly pancreatic cancer is a very serious form of cancer as it doesn’t really produce any early symptoms (the clues to a disease) so people rarely get diagnosed with it until it is very advanced, this was the case with my Grandad and he died of it in 1999.

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