People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a much higher risk of pancreatic cancer, an unusual but deadly cancer, researchers reported on Monday.

    People who drank mostly fruit juice instead of sodas did not have the same risk, the study of 60,000 people in Singapore found.

    Sugar may be to blame but people who drink sweetened sodas regularly often have other poor health habits, says Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota, who led the study.

    "The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth," Pereira says.

    Insulin, which helps the body metabolize sugar, is made in the pancreas.

    Writing in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, Pereira and colleagues say they followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years.

    Over that time, 140 of the volunteers developed pancreatic cancer. Those who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of being among those who got pancreatic cancer.

    Pereira says he believed the findings would apply elsewhere.

    "Singapore is a wealthy country with excellent healthcare. Favorite pastimes are eating and shopping, so the findings should apply to other Western countries," he says.

    But Susan Mayne of the Yale Cancer Center at Yale University in Connecticut was cautious.

    研究者于本周一宣布：每周飲用至少兩次甜味軟飲料的人患胰腺癌的幾率較高，這種癌癥雖不常見但有致命危險。

    專家在新加坡對60000人進行研究發現，只喝果汁而很少喝碳酸飲料的人患胰腺癌的幾率不高。

    此項研究負責人、明尼蘇達大學的馬克派瑞拉表示：糖分含量高可能是主要原因，但不排除喝甜味碳酸飲料的人有其他不良習慣。

    派瑞拉說："軟飲料中含糖量較高有可能導致胰島素分泌量增加，胰島素增多會促進胰腺癌癌細胞的生長和擴散。"

    促進體內糖分代謝的胰島素是由胰腺分泌的。

    派瑞拉及其同事在期刊《Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention》發表文章稱：他們在新加坡華人健康研究中心對60524名測試志愿者進行了14年的跟蹤研究。

    14年中，有140名志愿者患上了胰腺癌。這些人中，每周至少喝兩次軟飲料的志愿者患胰腺癌的幾率高出87%.

    派瑞拉相信這些研究數據適用于別的國家和地區。

    他說："新加坡非常富有，醫療衛生條件先進。最主要的消遣方式就是飲食和購物。所以這些數據應該適用于其他西方國家。"

    但是美國康涅狄格州耶魯大學耶魯癌癥研究中心的蘇珊梅恩對此研究結果較為謹慎。