What is going on? Pancreatic cancer cases locally

[Windy Ridge]

I had an uncle who died from it many years ago. At that time pancreatic cancer was supposed to have a link to alcoholism. My uncle by marriage had been a genuine Tennesee moonshiner as a young man and a binge drinker to the end.

Windy Ridge

[ARFan]

This is getting pretty weird.

Summerthyme

Is it? What's you sample size? How did you come by it? What parameters did you address in gathering your data? In what way did you exclude bias? I can think of a couple of dozen more questions, but that's a start. People use to shudder when I sat in doctoral thesis prelim sessions, BTW. Most thanked me in private, after. Seems I sharpened a lot of papers and made them more resistant to peer review.

[Sojourner]

GMOs?

[JohnWalker]

I have no idea if it would be considered a "cluster" or if anyone is keeping track of this stuff. They lived at least a few miles apart... not like they were all in the same neighborhood. All were nonsmokers...

Two would have been on their own water wells; the other two lived in town. There aren't any known "natural" contaminants of water in this area, like arsenic.

Jed.... my gut says the same as yours. It seems that something in the diet is stressing the pancreas to the point where it begins to cause cellular damage and mutations.

The reason this caught my interest (beyond the individual tragedies that this represents) is that it's not so easy to say "well, it's just that people are living longer, so they live long enough to develop cancer"... that's true enough in prostate cancer, but these are all relatively young men. Something we're eating is poisoning us!

Summerthyme

It is easy to say "because they're living longer", but every time I hear that I picture the commercials with children who are being treated for cancer.

[SunnySide]

I don't know what the deal is, but my brother's father-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on Feb. 3 and he passed away last weekend. The saddest part is that he retired from his 40 year career on Jan. 31 and was diagnosed the following Monday. His doctors estimated that the cancer had been growing for up to five years at the time that it was discovered.

I've been doing a little research on the topic, and I was surprised to learn that pancreatic cancer is supposedly the fourth most common type of cancer and one in 70 people will get it.

[abvp]

hfcs does unknown damage to the body. It certainly isn't safe. It wouldn't surprise me if it could cause cancer.

and then GMO does who knows what to you.

[ARFan]

GMOs?

Magic spells from malign sorcerers? Both are equally valid without testing.

[1Ms. America]

I've had a bout or two with pancreatitis, have NO idea why. But I can tell you that prior to the acute pain phase, and for a year or so before the full attack came on, I had continuous heartburn. That wasn't normal for me, but I was also under a heavy load of stress so I chaulked it up to nerves.

Don't Ignore Heartburn! You know what's normal and usual for you, and everybody gets a bit now and then, but If you need to eat tums by the handful daily, or a bottle a month or whatever, go get it checked! Food starts bothering you that didn't used to, get it checked. The earliest symptoms can be subtle.

As a result, my liklihood of getting pancreatic cancer is a bit higher than it was.

Other health issues can predispose a person to pancreatic and/or liver cancers some of which are blood disorders and certain joint disorders. (hemachromatosis for example).

Most recently..in January...I had an ovarian cancer scare. As part of a routine female exam, I almost leaped off the table in pain. They found a mass which was quickly tested. Turned out to be a swollen loop of bowel right near the ovary. I had no pain at all otherwise, only upon palpation. Until that was discovered though, I was pretty scared by the thought of ovarian cancer as I just lost my closest friend to it. The survival rate for that isn't all that great, either.

Sometimes cancers DO give some slight sign that they are present, but it's only in retrospect that we realize there were some slight signs. Maybe just low energy levels, or a vague ache or pain, or a cramp now and then or maybe slight changes in bowel movements that seem rather insignificant, or an itch to a spot you can't see...

I hate cancer :(

[carol b]

I'm in no way implying that this story has anything to do with pancreatic cancer, just that we don't know what we don't know. The local food pantry was the recipient of some whole wheat flour from a local bakery. Since it was in 30# bags, rather than try to find someone to give it to, I took it home to make bread for a local soup kitchen. After looking at it more closely, I realized it was a bread mix. It contained whole wheat flour, dried milk, dried honey, dried eggs. It was a "just add yeast and water" mix. I got online to google the brand and see what I could find out about it. Turns out, it came from Pakistan. Now, if you buy fresh, warm whole wheat bread from a local bakery, does it occur to you that the ingredients are from Pakistan?

The school breakfasts contains Dole fruit cups. Have you read the label? "Product of Thailand."

Unless you buy ingredients locally, or grow your own, you truly don't know where the stuff comes from.

[farmermom]

Anecdotes only. Husband's grandmother got pancreatic cancer in 1980. Never smoked. Never drank. I think that she drank soda, but can't be certain. Lived a major portion of her life in West Virginia and the rest in Florida. No family history of cancer.
I got pancreatitis in 1973 as a direct result of exposure to aldicarb. No one would admit that's what it was, because the private estate on which I was working was owned by a billionaire and they weren't supposed to be using it at all. I spent 3 days taking spoonsful of the stuff and stirring it into pots of chrysanthemums before I collapsed and was hauled off in an ambulance. No protective gear at all.