According to a recent study published in the journal Cancer, patients with familial pancreatic cancer were twice as likely to have a first-degree relative with a malignancy other than pancreatic cancer compared to patients with isolated pancreatic cancer. And, those with familial pancreatic cancer were more likely to have precancerous lesions and less likely to be smokers. Professor Andrew Biankin (Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Scotland) and colleagues tried to discover the characteristics of familial pancreatic cancer, which they defined as the presence of pancreatic cancer in at least one other first-degree relative, as a way of distinguishing other isolated pancreatic cancers. The project included 766 cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, of which 8.9% (N=68) had familial pancreatic cancer. The researchers determined that patients had comparable median survival for familial or isolated pancreatic cancer whether they underwent surgical resection (19.8 months vs. 17.4 months, P=0.14) or not (7.2 months vs. 6.8 months, P=0.61). The mean age at diagnosis of familial or isolated pancreatic cancer was similar (65.8 years vs. 66 years, P=0.89). However, the mean median age at diagnosis was significantly younger in the younger generation of the paternal son type in familial pancreatic cancer (72.9 years vs. 60.6 years; P < 0.0001). The proportion of familial or isolated pancreatic cancer with previously diagnosed malignancy was the same (14.7% vs. 10.3%, P=0.26). First-degree relatives of patients with familial pancreatic cancer were more likely to have a malignancy other than pancreatic cancer (44.1% vs 21.2%; P < 0.0001). First-degree relatives of patients with familial pancreatic cancer were more likely to have melanoma (8.8% vs 0.6%; P < 0.0001) or endometrial cancer (2.9% vs 0.6%, P = 0.03) compared with first-degree relatives of patients with isolated pancreatic cancer. The researchers also noted that patients with familial pancreatic cancer were more likely to have precancerous lesions found in their resected specimens compared with patients with isolated pancreatic cancer (36.8% vs 23.9%, P=0.03) and were less likely to be active smokers at the time of diagnosis (8.8% vs 28.2%, P=0.0003). "These findings are important because they suggest that the genes we inherit from our parents may make a significant contribution to the development of pancreatic cancer during our lifetimes," Professor Biankin wrote in a press release, "and secondly, they highlight the fact that when assessing the risk of pancreatic cancer in certain individuals, it is important Second, they emphasize that when assessing someone's risk of developing pancreatic cancer, it is important to assess not only their family history of pancreatic cancer but also their family history of other malignancies. Finally, our data emphasize the importance of smoking cessation."