Regular alcohol consumption may increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, with researchers finding how it damages cells that produce digestive enzymes.
Heavy drinking triggers inflammation in the pancreas – an organ that helps break down food and regulate blood sugar – which can lead to pre-cancerous lesions that may progress to cancer.
Heavy alcohol use is typically defined as eight or more drinks per week for women and 15 or more for men.
Researchers in Miami, US, found alcohol damages pancreatic cells responsible for producing digestive enzymes.
Over time, this inflammation can result in lesions that develop into pancreatic cancer, which kills more than 9,000 people in the UK and 52,000 in the US each year.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates, with around 10 per cent in the UK and 12 per cent in the US surviving five years after diagnosis.
For the disease to progress, the researchers found there must also be a mutation in a gene called Ras, which controls cell growth.
In experiments, alcohol combined with a pro-inflammatory molecule caused symptoms similar to alcohol-induced pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition that can trigger lesions and ultimately cancer.
The team discovered they could prevent pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions from forming by disabling a gene called CREB, which plays a pro-inflammatory role. C
REB acts as a “master controller”, permanently reprogramming healthy pancreas cells into abnormal, pre-cancerous cells.
Study co-author Dr Nipun Merchant, a surgeon in Miami, said the findings “lay the groundwork” for future pancreatic cancer prevention.
The discovery comes amid a rise in pancreatic cancer cases among younger people, although there has not yet been a corresponding increase in deaths.
Around 10 per cent of patients survive the first year after diagnosis, dropping to about one per cent by three years.
Fewer than one in 20 people in the UK with the disease survive 10 years. In the US, depending on the cancer stage, five-year survival rates range from three to 44 per cent.
Early symptoms include weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain, changes in bowel habits and jaundice – yellowing of the skin or eyes.
Pancreatic cancer is an umbrella term for tumours in the 25cm-long, tadpole-shaped organ that aids digestion and hormone regulation.
The most common type, adenocarcinoma, accounts for about 90 per cent of cases. It often causes no symptoms until rapid weight loss and jaundice develop, by which time it is usually too late for most patients, earning it the nickname “silent killer”.
The recent increase in cases has come from endocrine cancers – slow-growing tumours that take decades to develop. While they can become cancerous, most are benign.
Some experts believe improved diagnostic tools such as CT and MRI scans, which are now more sensitive, are detecting cancers that might previously have gone unnoticed.
According to the NHS, those at higher risk include people over 65, those with chronic pancreatitis or a family history of the disease.
Other risk factors include smoking, being overweight or obese, diabetes, eating red and processed meat, and blood group.