title: Diet and pancreatic cancer: many questions with few certainties.
abstract: BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES: Pancreatic cancer ranks fourth for cancer mortality for men and women in the United States. This is a particularly devastating cancer since the case-fatality proportion approaches 90% within 12 months following diagnosis. Therefore, understanding the etiology and identifying the risk factors are essential for the primary prevention of this deadly disease. Of the few potentially modifiable risk factors that have been identified, cigarette smoking, history of diabetes mellitus, and obesity seem to be among the most consistent, but the effect of dietary factors is still unclear. The aim of our study is to review of the literature examining the potential role of carbohydrates, fatty acids, meat, fruit and vegetables, alcohol.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although large prospective cohort studies with questionnaire based analyses will continue to have much to offer in defining predisposing factors for difficult diseases, such as pancreatic cancer, unfortunately dietary questionnaires do not reflect the bioavailability of the nutrients from various foods, the level of absorption from the digestive tract, or individual differences in metabolism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Greater use of participant-derived biological samples, banked plasma, germline DNA, and tumour tissue samples may help to the understanding of pancreatic cancer pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, General Surgery and Breast Unit, University of Catania, Italy. alecap@unict.it
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cappellani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Vita
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zanghi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piccolo
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lo Menzo
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malaguarnera
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giaquinta
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Veroux
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cimino
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berretta
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004032:Diet; D004777:Environment; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000494:pharmacology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D038321:Glycemic Index; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008460:Meat; D009153:Mutagens / Q000032:analysis; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D005227:Fatty Acids; D009153:Mutagens