Association between Alcohol Consumption, Folate Intake, and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: A Case-Control Study

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal common cancers affecting both men and women, representing about 3 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association of pancreatic cancer risk with alcohol consumption as well as folate intake. We performed a case-control study of 384 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from May 2004 to December 2009 and 983 primary care healthy controls. Our findings showed no significant association between risk of pancreatic cancer and either overall alcohol consumption or type of alcohol consumed (drinks/day). Our study showed dietary folate intake was modestly but significantly inversely associated with pancreatic cancer (OR=0.99, P <.0001). The current study supports the hypothesis that pancreatic cancer risk is reduced with higher food-based folate intake.