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Pancreatic cancer and obesity: epidemiology, mechanism, and preventive strategies

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Abstract

The prevalence of obesity has seen a global increase in the past decades, escalating to one of the major epidemiological challenges today. Global economic growth has caused changes in dietary and physical activity patterns fueling obesity across age, gender, and income groups. The implications are many, as obesity has been associated with numerous serious health conditions, ultimately affecting morbidity and mortality. There is a growing recognition of the risk a high body mass index confers on the development and outcome of several malignancies, including pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease with exceptionally poor outcome, with incidences rising worldwide. Due to vague symptoms and no screening recommendations, a vast majority of patients are diagnosed at late stages, with already advanced disease and no opportunity for surgical intervention. Obesity mediates risk for pancreatic cancer through insufficiently understood mechanisms, possibly including inflammation and hormonal misbalance. As excess abdominal adiposity is among the few modifiable risk factors for pancreatic cancer onset, enduring weight loss could manifest an effective preventive measure. Lifestyle modifications on a population level aimed to reduce obesity could also scale down the grim pancreatic cancer rates. In cases when these measures alone are insufficiently effective, bariatric surgery can be an advantageous alternative. Extremely obese patients exhibit many health benefits following bariatric surgery along with weight loss, consequently reducing the chances of pancreatic cancer, especially if additionally adopting healthy lifestyle habits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine/Hospitalist, SOVAH Health, 320 Hospital Dr, Martinsville, VA, 24115, USA

    Prashanth Rawla

  2. Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

    Krishna Chaitanya Thandra

  3. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mercy Medical Center, Des Moines, IA, 50314, USA

    Tagore Sunkara

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  1. Prashanth Rawla
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Conception and design, analysis and interpretation, drafting of the article, critical revision of the article and final approval of the article: PR, KCT, TS.

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Correspondence to Prashanth Rawla.

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Rawla, P., Thandra, K. & Sunkara, T. Pancreatic cancer and obesity: epidemiology, mechanism, and preventive strategies. Clin J Gastroenterol 12, 285–291 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-019-00953-3

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