Originally published January 15 2006
New study claims a link exists between high insulin levels and pancreatic cancer
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, an investigator in the nutritional epidemiology branch at the National Cancer Institute, led a study that found a connection between high insulin levels and pancreatic cancer.
New research found that male smokers with the highest post-fasting blood insulin levels had double the risk of pancreatic tumors.
"We had known that there was a pretty consistent association between diabetes and glucose intolerance and pancreatic cancer, but the reason for that association has been somewhat controversial," explained study author Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, an investigator in the nutritional epidemiology branch at the National Cancer Institute.
"Some people feel that diabetes is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer, while some clinicians think some cases of diabetes are the result of latent pancreatic cancer."
This study's findings, said Stolzenberg-Solomon, support the hypothesis that the high levels of insulin that occur during the early stages of diabetes may promote the growth of pancreatic cancer cells.
More than 32,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year and most will die because the disease is usually detected far too late, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Five-year survival rates range between 4 percent and 15 percent, depending on how far the disease has spread at the time of diagnosis.
One reason the researchers only looked at cancers that occurred after five years of follow-up was to better assess if early diabetes might be contributing to the cancer.
They could assess this because they had blood samples from each man to measure glucose and insulin levels.
The researchers also randomly selected 400 men from the larger sample to act as controls.
"This is the first study to show that insulin levels are increased with the risk of pancreatic cancer," said Eric Jacobs, a senior epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society.
"While our study needs to be confirmed, it has potentially important implications for nutrition and pancreatic cancer prevention strategies," said Stolzenberg-Solomon.
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