Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in Europe for men and women combined. Cases are almost always diagnosed at an advanced stage, and with few treatment options available, the resulting 5-year survival rates are among the lowest (<5%) of any cancer. The best option for treatment is still surgery, but this is available only for <20% of cases with smaller lesions at diagnosis and those that have not spread beyond the pancreas. A history of tobacco smoking, excess central adiposity, and long-standing diabetes are common preventable causes of pancreatic cancer, but these factors are not present in the majority of cases. An important aim of the EPIC Pancreatic Cancer Working Group is therefore to evaluate environmental and genetic risk factors for pancreatic cancer, and to identify pre-diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of this aggressive cancer.
Major activities within the Working Group involve evaluations of the role of dietary and metabolic factors and common genetic and epigenetic events, as well as identification of novel etiological factors that may act independently or be modified by known risk factors for pancreatic cancer. Recent topics in EPIC include evaluation of the role of inflammation and immune response, infection, vitamin D status, plasma fatty acids, and metabolomics approaches. International research collaborations, including genome-wide association studies (PanScan), have resulted in the establishment of large projects involving EPIC investigators, and data pooling projects focused on confirming known or suspected risk factors, including rare exposures (e.g. heavy alcohol consumption), as well as identifying novel genetic factors and their interactions in pancreatic cancer etiology.
Selected publications:
Contact details/Working Group leader
Verena Katzke, PhD
Division of Cancer Epidemiology
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
Heidelberg, Germany
v.katzke@dkfz.de