[Sportschosun Reporter Jang Jong-ho] Women who have given birth were found to have a lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer than women who have not.
Pancreatic cancer has a five-year relative survival rate of 17.0% in South Korea, based on patients diagnosed between 2019 and 2023, making it one of the most difficult-to-treat cancers and the lowest among major cancers. Because it causes few, if any, early symptoms, it is hard to detect early, and many cases are already advanced at the time of diagnosis, leading to a poor prognosis.
Although it occurs more often in men across all age groups, recent reports from the United Kingdom, the United States and South Korea have shown that the rise among younger age groups is more pronounced in women than in men.
According to Ministry of Health and Welfare cancer registry statistics, the number of new pancreatic cancer cases in South Korea rose from 2,614 in 1999 to 9,748 in 2023, an increase of about 3.7 times. The country is now approaching an annual total of 10,000 new patients.
Smoking, obesity and diabetes are well-known major risk factors for pancreatic cancer. However, beyond these factors, there is still not enough evidence on how women's reproductive factors affect the development of the disease.
Against this backdrop, a research team led by Professor Park Joo-hyun of the Department of Family Medicine at Korea University Ansan Hospital and Professor Hong Jeong-yong of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Samsung Seoul Hospital analyzed the link between childbirth experience and pancreatic cancer risk among about 930,000 premenopausal women in South Korea.
The team followed 935,345 premenopausal women aged 40 to 55 who underwent national cancer screening in 2009 for an average of 9.3 years. During the study period, 2,065 participants were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Because pancreatic cancer is generally rare in premenopausal women, the absolute risk during follow-up remained low at about two to three cases per 1,000 women.
The analysis found that the incidence of pancreatic cancer was higher among women who had never given birth than among those who had. This association remained even after adjusting for various factors that could affect pancreatic cancer risk, including age, body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and pancreatitis.
Specifically, compared with women who had never given birth, the risk of pancreatic cancer was 28% lower for women who had given birth once and 30% lower for those who had given birth two or more times. By contrast, age at first menstruation, duration of breastfeeding and length of oral contraceptive use were not significantly associated with pancreatic cancer risk.
The research team suggested that the rise in female hormones, especially estrogen, during pregnancy may be one possible explanation for the findings. They added that further studies are needed to identify the exact biological mechanism.
Professor Park Joo-hyun said, "This study will serve as important evidence for understanding the risk of pancreatic cancer among women who have not given birth in an era of low birth rates, and for developing tailored cancer prevention strategies for them." She added, "However, because this is an observational study that identified an association between childbirth experience and pancreatic cancer risk, it is still too early to interpret the findings as showing that childbirth directly prevents pancreatic cancer." She emphasized, "For pancreatic cancer prevention, it is most important to consistently manage well-known risk factors such as quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and controlling diabetes."
Meanwhile, the study, titled 'Parity and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer Among Premenopausal Women: A Nationwide Cohort Study,' was published in the international journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Reporter Jang Jong-ho bellho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
