Study links smoking, pancreatic cancer.

The numbers tell a grim story: Fewer than half of all people diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas survive more than a year; fewer than 5 percent live 5 years. The disease occurs almost 50 percent more frequently among blacks than whites and affects more men than women. It kills approximately 25,000 people in the United States each year -- making it the fifth leading cause of death from cancer.

Now, researchers have found a way to reduce those numbers with just two words: Stop smoking.

A new report warns that cigarette smoking increases the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by 70 percent and that the longer the smoker continues, the greater the risk. But smokers can reduce those odds by 30 percent if they quit for 11 years or more, says Debra T. Silverman of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., who led a team that examined the smoking-pancreatic cancer link. Its findings appear in the Oct. 19 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE.

Silverman and her colleagues conducted a 3-year study of 526 smokers with pancreatic cancer and 2,153 randomly selected volunteers, who served as a control group. Looking for risk factors, the team recorded the smoking, dietary, medical, and occupational histories of participants in the study, the first of its kind to interview pancreatic cancer patients directly.

The researchers conclude that cigarette smoking may account for approximately 27 percent of the pancreatic cancers in the United States and that switching from filtered to nonfiltered cigarettes has little impact on a smoker's risk of developing the disease.

"This study documents the link between cigarette smoking and pancreatic cancer," says Robert C. Kurtz of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. It shows that if you stop smoking, "the risk decreases."

The study failed to uncover why blacks develop pancreatic cancer at a higher rate than whites. Silverman's team selected the 2,153 black and white volunteers in proportion to their numbers among the 526 smokers to see if cigarette smoking causes the higher risk for blacks. The researchers found no link. The results show a virtual dead heat, with smoking accounting for the cancer in 29 percent of the blacks and 26 percent of the whites.

"Although we don't have all the answers, the long-term implications of this study suggest that by eliminating cigarette smoking, eventually we could save 6,750 lives each year," Silverman says.