Daily News: Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Hepatitis B
Thursday November 20, 2008
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With an established link of hepatitis to liver cancer, the proximity of the liver to the pancreas and the fact that they share blood vessels and ducts make the pancreas a potential target for hepatitis viruses, adds lead author and assistant professor Manal Hassan, MD, PhD.
The first-of-its-kind study began in 2000, considering the presence of hepatitis B and C viruses in 476 M.D. Anderson patients with early-stage pancreatic cancer and 879 other people matched by age, gender, and race. Exposure to hepatitis B was significantly higher (7.6%) in people with pancreatic cancer than in healthy people (3.2%), but exposure to hepatitis C was not significantly different in the groups, Hassan says.
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