Any Cancer Experts Out There?

Question

Over the last couple of years several of my workmates have died from pancreatic cancer. They all worked in the same environment about 15 to 20 years ago for several years and have all developed the disease and died. The youngest , fittest men went down first and it caught up with the older ones a year or two later. The company's medical officers say our concerns are unfounded and it is pure coincidence that the same cancer has struck so many times.Does cancer attack more muscular men more vigourosly than older men and what could cause cancer of the Pancreas ?

Answer 1

Because of the functions of the Pancreas, there are some chemicals, and some other 'lifestyle factors', that may affect the risk of developing the disease.

The problem is that the research is thin on the ground, and some companies will vigorously defend their 'ignorance' of any link, because this can form a defence against liability. It IS possible to have a 'meaningless' cluster, but this interpretation won't allay your understandable fear for your own future.

Depending on how many people you mean by 'several', there may be organisations that would like to know about your suspicions of a 'significant cluster'. The normal age distribution for cancers is an increase with age, so if your cluster shows the opposite, then there may be something useful to be learned.

Try these links for more information and possible contacts:

info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types

www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/?page=13592

www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk

Answer 2

Could i point to the 3rd respondant that cancer cells fail to die (as normal cells do) hence they grow, not that they fail to repair themselves.

Pancreatic cancer is as you will be aware very aggressive, and whilst it is more common after retirement, can strike those younger. Often it is considered to be acute pancreatitis as the patients are young, and symptoms and ERCP brushings and EUS tru cuts can give unequivocal results.

There is nothing in my experience which would link these cases together other than nasty coincidence, pancreatic cancer has been proved to have no cause, but links with chronic pancreatitis and diabetes exist. We had a woman who was in hospital looking after her grandad when her husband got diagnosed, and then 2 weeks later her father in law was diagnosed. It can just be a very nasty coincidence, highlighted by the fact they were all so aware of the symptoms due to colleagues illness.

To answer the other point, cancer hits the young harder as it is often one of the later differential diagnosis. If a 40 year old man pitches up with jaundice, gall bladder, maybe PSC, PBC, chronic pancreatitis.....the list goes on. By the time it is diagnosed, the disease has often progressed a long way, hence why it seems to hit the young hard.

Answer 3

My father died of pancreatic cancer 3 years ago and he was the most athletic and strongest man I've ever known. He was 48 years old and battled cancer for almost 20 months when he was supposed to live only 3. The doctors were unable to provide us the cause of my dad's cancer but they said it had something to do with smoking cigarettes. He had many complications along the way like deep vein thrombosis in his leg and peritonitis.

Answer 4

Cancer is pretty unpredictable, it has no rule of when it happens so 1 in 3 of us are all living on a knife edge from the day were born. On one hand you can have a young man who hasn't smoked, drank, kept fit and die from lung or bowel cancer then you can have an old unhealthy guy that has eaten badly, smoked 60 a day, barely exercised and have nothing but a slight cough.

All cancers have the same cause which is the cells of the organ fail to repair themselves so they divide rapidly spreading itself through the body till it destroys everything in its path.