Incidence of Pancreatic Cancer Increasing in Younger Women

TUESDAY, Feb. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Pancreatic cancer (PC) incidence is increasing among younger women, according to a study published online Feb. 10 in Gastroenterology.

Yazan Abboud, M.D., from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and colleagues used the National Program of Cancer Registries database to report an age- and sex-specific time-trend analysis of PC age-adjusted incidence rates (aIR). Age-specific analyses were conducted in older (aged 55 years and older) and younger (younger than 55 years) adults with PC.

Data were included for 454,611 patients diagnosed with PC between 2001 and 2018. The researchers found that aIR increased significantly in women and men, with no difference between the increases (average annual percentage change [AAPC], 1.27 and 1.14 percent, respectively). In older adults, results were similar, while in younger adults, a greater increase in aIR was seen in women versus men (AAPC, 2.36 versus 0.62 percent). This difference in AAPC seemed to be due to increasing aIR in Blacks, adenocarcinoma histopathological subtype, and location in the head of pancreas (2.23, 0.89, and 1.64 percent, respectively). In women, PC mortality was unchanged, while in men, there was a decline in mortality (AAPC difference, 0.54 percent).

“We can tell that the rate of pancreatic cancer among women is rising rapidly, which calls attention to the need for further research in this area,” a coauthor said in a statement. “There’s a need to understand these trends, and to make changes today so this doesn’t affect women disproportionately in the future.”