Nicotine may advance pancreatic cancer

PHILADELPHIA, July 30 (UPI) -- Exposure to nicotine via smoking has been linked to a greater risk of aggressive pancreatic cancer, U.S. researchers say.

The study, published in the journal Surgery, suggests pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma will more likely become metastatic when there is a history of smoking because a variant of the protein osteopontin linked to cancer growth -- called OPNc -- may be promoted by nicotine.

The researchers found OPNc expression on 87 percent of the invasive cancer lesions analyzed -- of which 73 percent were from smokers. The OPNc expression also correlated with higher expression levels of osteopontin. Premalignant lesions expressed no OPNc.

"This is the first time a relationship between nicotine and OPNc expression has been identified," study leader Dr. Hwyda Arafat of the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia says in a statement. "These data are very exciting because now we can evaluate OPNc as a prognostic and diagnostic marker of invasive PDA lesions."

The exact role of OPNc in advancing pancreatic cancer, Arafat says, remains to be defined, but it could provide a unique potential target to control pancreatic cancer aggressiveness -- especially in people who smoke cigarettes.