DECIPHERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS AND THE INCIDENCE OF PANCREATIC CANCER AMONG KASHMIRI POPULATION

The incidence of Pancreatic cancers varies globally, with some regions and populations showing unexpectedly high incidence rates, while others show very low incidence rates. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has one of the worst survival rates of all the cancers. Established risk factors for this malignancy are smoking, body mass index (BMI) and family history of pancreatic cancer. Findings are inconsistent regarding pancreatitis, diabetes, intake of fruit, vegetables, red meat, and alcohol. The aim of the current study was to find out the association of various SES and lifestyle factors with the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Pathologically confirmed pancreatic cancer cases (n = 46) were identified from the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science, Kashmir. Data on patients with pancreatic cancer were acquired through private interviews with all topics and from their medical records. Smoking showed significant associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk. No other significant associations were observed in the multivariate model with respect to other variables but several factors showing increased trends like more number of cases (84.78%) were from rural areas. 63% of the patients were found to be diabetic and 82.6% of the patients were found to be married. This study further clarifies that there can number of other factors which need to be studied and may have direct or indirect association with occurrence and prevalence of pancreatic cancer risk, many of which are potentially modifiable. Possible effect modification by smoking status should be further explored in future etiologic studies.