Women with polycystic ovary syndrome at higher risk of pancreatic cancer: JAMA
New York: Compared to women without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), those with a history of PCOS are at twice the risk of developing pancreatic cancer later in life, a recent study in JAMA Oncology has revealed.
It is known that only 11% of pancreatic cancer survive five years after diagnosis; given this, clinical surveillance is recommended for people at high risk. There are relatively few established risk factors for pancreatic cancer, knowledge of these can help detect other subgroups of individuals who may get help from increased education and clinical vigilance.
The researchers note that while millions of women have PCOS, pancreatic cancer remains a rare disease, with around 62,000 diagnoses of cases every year — about half of them in women.
PCOS is a common endocrine disorder that affects 1 in 10 women of childbearing age; it is linked with various carcinogenic processes and cancers. A 2019 Swedish register study showed that women with PCOS are at 3.4-fold higher risk of pancreatic cancer, but it had only five women with pancreatic cancer had PCOS, which was not adequate to draw a firm conclusion. Noah C. Peeri, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, and colleagues sought to confirm this exploratory finding; by studying a much larger group of people. The analysis included 446 women with confirmed pancreatic adenocarcinoma and 209 controls.
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