In a study led by Dr Saverio Stranges, Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Warwick Medical School, the team looked at levels of oxidative stress in the body (a toxic effect which causes cell damage).

They found high levels of oxidative stress in people with coronary heart disease, previously thought to be a marker of the heart condition, could instead indicate a condition of glucose abnormality, such as overt type 2 diabetes.

The research team took blood samples to contrast oxidative stress levels in people with coronary heart disease, people with type 2 diabetes and healthy control subjects. Previous studies have shown people with type 2 diabetes and people with coronary heart disease have high levels of oxidative stress.

Dr Stranges ™ team expected to produce similar results, but they found that those stress levels were low in people with coronary heart disease but without type 2 diabetes. Further investigation showed people from this group with high levels also had overt type 2 diabetes.

The research used data taken from the Western New York Health Study. This was a case-control study of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular risk factors among residents of Erie and Niagara Counties, New York.

Dr Stranges said: The results were intriguing. We expected to find high levels of oxidative stress in people with a clinical heart condition, such as myocardial infarction, and people with diabetes. As we thought, the levels were high for diabetics, but there were some discrepancies for people with heart disease.

Our findings suggest the observed associations of increased oxidative stress in individuals with heart disease may be dependent on underlying abnormalities in glucose metabolism.

Additional contributors to the study were Dr Joan Dorn, Professor Richard Donahue, Professor Jo Freudenheim, Kathleen Hovey and Professor Maurizio Trevisan from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, USA; Dr Richard Browne from the Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, USA.

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Research has also suggested that diabetes and abnormal insulin levels may play a role. The authors of this study believe that obesity could increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by affecting insulin levels.

Dr Luo continued: "We know that carrying a high proportion of abdominal fat is associated with increased levels of insulin, so we think this may cause the link between obesity and pancreatic cancer."

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: "Pancreatic cancer is associated with particularly poor survival, so it's crucial that we learn more about how to prevent the disease.

"About a quarter of all cancer deaths are caused by unhealthy diets and obesity and it's important that people are aware of this risk."

*J Luo et al. Obesity and risk of pancreatic cancer among postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative (United States). British Journal of Cancer; advance online publication, July 15, 2008; doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6604487.

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