Alcohol has been shown to cause chronic pancreatitis, which can lead to pancreatic cancer, but previous studies had been unable to confirm the association between drinking and pancreatic cancer. However, a recent study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention suggests that men and women who consume more than two alcoholic beverages a day could increase their risk of developing the cancer.

Unlike previous studies, the current research pools data collected from 14 research studies, which included 862,664 people. The data was collected prospectively, which means that information about dietary and environmental exposures was collected prior to the pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Of the 862,664, 2,187 were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during the study.

If an individual consumed approximately two drinks per day (compared with no alcohol per day), their risk of pancreatic cancer was slightly increased. Researchers defined one drink as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled liquor.

Although there was no significant difference between men and women when comparing alcohol intake with the risk of cancer, the association was seen in women at two or more drinks per day. The researchers also observed a higher risk among men who consumed three or more drinks a day.

In addition to chronic pancreatitis and diabetes, smoking is still considered the strongest risk factor for pancreatic cancer. In 2008, there were about 18,910 new cases of pancreatic cancer reported and 34,290 deaths from pancreatic cancer.

"Despite being a deadly disease, there are few known risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer," explains lead author Jeanine M. Genkinger, PhD, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. She continues, "At this point, it’s important to understand any protective or risk factors for this dangerous disease even if the risks are weak or modest."

When flies and mice were treated with these drugs, they became more sensitive to alcohol. Rats given the drug spontaneously consumed less alcohol when it was freely available to them, but they continued to drink sugar water, another rewarding beverage. "This is a very powerful example of how simple model organisms—and the little fruit fly in particular—can be used to move quickly from an unknown gene to a potential therapy for drug addiction," said Ulrike Heberlein of the University of California, San Francisco.

Earlier studies have shown that fruit flies are a useful tool for discovering the basis for the effects of alcohol. Several genes that were previously identified as playing a role in the flies’ alcohol response play similar roles in mammals. In this new study, researchers screened mutant flies for those less sensitive to the cancer-fighting drugs. This led them to the happyhour gene, which has an important and previously unknown role in controlling the insects’ response to alcohol.

Heberlein’s team explained that because genetics seem to play a large role in alcoholism, genes and pathways involved in the acute response to alcohol can yield insight into the genetic factors that contribute to the more complex process of addition. Although they still don’t know exactly how alcohol influences the EGF pathway or how that leads to alcoholic intoxication, Heberlein said, “…the fact that we’ve come, in an unbiased way, to molecules in the same pathway is telling us that this is really, really important.”