The role of genetic factors in the etiology of pancreatic adenocarcinoma: An update

Pancreatic cancer is a disease with a very poor prognosis and its etiology is still largely elusive. The only consistent environmental risk factor is cigarette smoking. A previous history of pancreatitis or diabetes mellitus is also considered to be a risk factor: Epidemiological studies have confir med that relatives of those with pancreatic cancer have an increased risk o f this malignancy and it has been evaluated that 3-5% of all pancreatic can cer cases are caused by genetic predisposition to the disease. Usually this occurs in the setting of a known inherited cancer syndrome caused by mutat ions in genes such as BRCA1/2 and CDKN2A. Whether or not a true site-specif ic pancreatic adenocarcinoma syndrome exists is not known. The real challen ge for the management of high risk patients is to develop new screening met hods than can identify pre-neoplastic or early neoplastic lesions in a time ly manner .