Study finds pancreatic cancer gene in smokers:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
A study has found that heavy smokers who lack both copies of a gene called GSTT1 may run a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Male smokers lacking the gene, which encodes for glutathione S-transferase enzymes, had a 3.2-fold increased relative risk of developing pancreatic cancer compared with non-smokers who have both copies of the gene. Notably, female smokers had a 5-fold increase in risk. The findings, by Dr Eric Duell and colleagues of the Harvard School of Public Health, appear in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (February 20).