High Insulin Levels Linked To Pancreatic Cancer

Elevated blood levels of insulin do more than increase diabetes risk, they may also increase odds for 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.The findings appear in the Dec. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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