Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease that quickly deprives patients of both quality and quantity of life. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In 2001, an estimated 29,200 new cases were diagnosed, and 28,900 people died from the disease. The median survival of pancreatic cancer is six months and only 4% of patients are alive five years after diagnosis. Given its incidence and almost entire fatality, substantially increased research efforts are clearly warranted to understand, prevent, and control this disease. Although pancreatic cancer is rare in developing countries, including most of Egypt, the northeast Nile Delta region of Egypt offers a unique setting for studying pancreatic cancer because of: 1) its large number of pancreatic cancer cases; 2) the high serum cadmium levels in residents of the region; and 3) the unique molecular pathologic features of pancreatic cancer tumors of patients from this region [unusually high rate of GGT --> GTT (glycine --> valine) K-ras mutation]. Cadmium has been suspected as a carcinogen for pancreatic cancer and the large number of cases and early-onset disease in addition to the unique K-ras mutations of tumors in this population may be caused by high cadmium exposures. We propose a pilot study to generate a hypothesis that pancreatic cancer, in this population, is caused by high levels of exposure to environmental cadmium. We will recruit 150 pancreatic cancer controls and 150 age-, sex- and residence-matched hospital controls. We will examine lifetime epidemiologic, environmental and cancer family histories to identify novel environmental or lifestyle-related factors that predict risk for pancreatic cancer in this population with high adverse environmental exposures. We will also test serum cadmium levels in cases and controls and K-ras mutation types in tumors of cases to define if the unique mutation types are associated with higher serum cadmium levels or other environmental exposures. This study may define the role of cadmium in the etiology of pancreatic cancer and may set the stage for future studies on gene-environmental interactions in the epidemiology of pancreatic cancer.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
7R03CA099513-02
Application #
6667292
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZCA1-SRRB-Q (O1))
Program Officer
Hartmuller, Virginia W
Project Start
2002-09-30
Project End
2005-08-31
Budget Start
2003-09-22
Budget End
2005-08-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$76,500
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
073133571
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109
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Soliman, Amr S; Lo, An-Chi; Banerjee, Mousumi et al. (2007) Differences in K-ras and p53 gene mutations among pancreatic adenocarcinomas associated with regional environmental pollution. Carcinogenesis 28:1794-9
Lo, An-Chi; Soliman, Amr S; El-Ghawalby, Nabih et al. (2007) Lifestyle, occupational, and reproductive factors in relation to pancreatic cancer risk. Pancreas 35:120-9
Kriegel, Alison M; Soliman, Amr S; Zhang, Qing et al. (2006) Serum cadmium levels in pancreatic cancer patients from the East Nile Delta region of Egypt. Environ Health Perspect 114:113-9
Soliman, Amr S; Zhang, Qing; Saleh, Thanaa et al. (2006) Pancreatic cancer mortality in Egypt: comparison to the United States pancreatic cancer mortality rates. Cancer Detect Prev 30:473-9
Soliman, Amr S; Bondy, Melissa; Webb, Charity Renee et al. (2006) Differing molecular pathology of pancreatic adenocarcinoma in Egyptian and United States patients. Int J Cancer 119:1455-61
Soliman, A S; Wang, X; Stanley, J-D et al. (2006) Geographical clustering of pancreatic cancers in the Northeast Nile Delta region of Egypt. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 51:142-8
Soliman, Amr S; El-Ghawalby, Nabih; Ezzat, Farouk et al. (2002) Unusually high rate of young-onset pancreatic cancer in the East Nile Delta region of Egypt. Int J Gastrointest Cancer 32:143-51