I have to present my results so it's like what I have discovered during my thesis (not that much, research is slow). It's a seminar for the institute I'm working in.
Pancreatic cancer is very nasty. Once it's diagnosed, it already is too late.
I'm studying what is causing cells to go from "healthy" to cancerous. We know the genetic mutations that lead to pancreatic cancer development but what is striking is that inflammation in the pancreas (pancreatitis) accelerates its development very quickly and an episode of inflammation could even explain all the cases of pancreatic cancer in humans.
The problem with inflammation is that it can go from "unnoticed" to "chronic", there are different stages to it. We know that patients who were diagnosed with chronic inflammation in the pancreas once in their life, have a 10-fold higher risk to develop pancreatic cancer.
Inflammation in the pancreas + genetic mutations in pancreatic cells and you get pancreatic cancer.
Now, why is inflammation driving the development of pancreatic cancer? That's what I'm basically studying.
If you can tackle inflammation in the pancreas, you can prevent it from further escalating and eventually leading to pancreatic cancer development.
Now, the major causes of pancreatic inflammation are alcohol abuse, cigarette smoke and obesity. Avoid these and you are already less likely to develop pancreatitis and possibly pancreatic cancer.
Maybe that's how Roger died after all.