Eating one sausage daily could raise the risk of pancreatic cancer by fifth, found a research. The research also revealed that even moderately small amount of processed meat raise the odds of developing this lethal disease. Pancreatic cancer is known as the silent killer as it does not show symptoms in early stage.
Some symptoms of the condition are often indistinct such as loss of appetite, back pain and weight loss. When the disease is diagnosed it often too late, due to this the disease has the worst survival rates of all cancers and only three percent of patients live more than five years.
A little is known about what causes the disease other than other contributors such as smoking, excess alcohol consumption and being overweight. However, now researchers in Sweden have analyzed the results of eleven studies involving six thousand patients with pancreatic cancer. They found consuming just fifty gram of processed meat a day increases the odds by nineteen percent.
Consumption of one hundred gram of processed meat, equal to a small burger, raises the risk of the condition by thirty-eight percent, while one hundred and fifty gram a day increases the risk by fifty-seven percent. The consumption of normal red meat such as steaks raises odds of males getting the cancer but not the females.
However the risk caused by eating meat was significantly lower than for smoking, which was found to raise the odds of pancreatic cancer by seventy-four percent. There is already extensive proof that red and processed meat may trigger bowel cancer. The study findings were published in the British Journal of Cancer.
According to Prof Susanna Larsson, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates. Therefore it is significant to understand what can increase the risk of this disease. Every year more than eight thousand Britons are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.