Risk factors related to age at diagnosis of pancreatic cancer: a retrospective cohort pilot study

BACKGROUND: Increased pancreatic cancer incidence has been observed among younger than in older adults. This pilot study aimed to determine the feasibility of a large study that would compare the age at diagnosis of pancreatic cancer among patients with different risk factors. METHODS: We compared the age at diagnosis of pancreatic cancer between groups of pancreatic cancer patients exposed and not exposed to the identified risk factors. We estimated the age at which exposure started, average exposure quantity, and total years of exposure and investigated their relationships with age at diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. RESULTS: Sixteen out of 24 (67%) subjects carried known genetic factors and/or had smoking and/or drinking habits; however, an earlier age of pancreatic cancer diagnosis was not observed. Conversely, we found a significant correlation between the age at which alcohol consumption was started and the age at diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (r = 0.8124, P = 0.0043). CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study suggested that a large study following this study design is feasible and that the following should be conducted in a large study: mediation analysis for disease-related factors, advanced genomic analysis for new candidate genes, and the correlation between age of first exposure to risk factors and pancreatic cancer onset. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12876-022-02325-7.