Opioids may be a potential cause of an increased incidence of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant tumors in the world and is known as the "King of Cancer".
pancreatic cancer is relatively hidden, more than 80% of patients at the time of diagnosis is already in the middle and late stage, five-year survival rate is very low, so far there is no cure.
the established risk factors for pancreatic cancer include genetic susceptible syndrome and chronic pancreatitis, the cause of most cases remains unclear.
, a recent study published in the journal PLOS ONE suggests that opioid use may be an undetected risk factor for an increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer.
pain is a very common phenomenon in cancer populations, and opioids are a first-line treatment for moderate or severe chronic cancer pain.
, however, opioid abuse and overdose have become public health crises.
, about 70,000 drug overdose deaths were reported in 2017, 68 percent of them related to opioid use, according to data.
for the study, researchers looked at the U.S. Cancer Statistics Database from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to explore and analyze possible links between changes in pancreatic cancer incidence and opioid use between 1999 and 2016.
to correct risk factors for other pancreatic cancers, the researchers also analyzed the potential relationship between current smoking rates (1999-2017), obesity rates (1999-2018) and alcohol consumption rates (1999-2018) and the development of pancreatic cancer four years later.
show that between 1999 and 2016, there were 700,300 new cases of pancreatic cancer in the United States and 351,630 deaths from opioid use.
of pancreatic cancer and opioid mortality vary significantly between states.
, however, the incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer have increased in most states, and the average incidence of pancreatic cancer is increasing at an annual rate of 0.137 percentage points.
In 1999 and 2016, data on pancreatic cancer morbidity and opioid mortality in each state explained the development of pre-cancer lesions by delaying risk factors by four years.
found that death rates from pancreatic cancer and opioids both increased over time.
previous opioid mortality rates predicted trends in pancreatic cancer years later.
, the researchers further observed a significant increase in opioid mortality and an increase in obesity rates during the study period.
, however, the prevalence of alcohol has not increased or decreased, and the prevalence of cigarettes has declined significantly over time.
incidence and risk factors vary from year to year, there is a link between opioid use and the risk of pancreatic cancer.
In the future, studies on the correlation between opioid use and the incidence of pancreatic cancer will need to be conducted directly based on large or longitudinal data, and once individual data on opioid use and pancreatic cancer risk are available, new approaches may be available for pain treatment in pancreatic cancer patients.
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