People who have excess weight have an increased risk of contracting pancreatic cancer. Dr Donghui Li, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said that people, overweight at a younger age had a stronger possibility of contracting pancreatic cancer than those gaining weight at an older age. 

He said that according to a study, overweight people in the age group of 20-49 years had an early onset of pancreatic cancer by 2-6 years. The study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings come from a case study of 841 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and a control group of 754 healthy people without cancer, who were matched by age, race, and gender.

People between the ages 14 and 39 years who were obese had a 1.67-fold higher risk of pancreatic cancer. It was a 2.58-fold higher risk for the people aged between 20 and 49 years. The risk levelled off for obese people over 40 years of age and was insignificant after age 50.

The association between body mass index (BMI) and pancreatic cancer was stronger in men than in women. The association was also stronger in the case of current or former smokers. It has been noted that increased weight accelerates the progress of the disease – from the development stage to ultimate outcome. According to the study, the average survival period was 18 months for people with normal body weight the year prior to the cancer diagnosis, while it was 13 months for people with excess weight.