Study Links Soft Drinks to Cancer

A new study targets the soft-drink industry, linking consumption of sugary soda to pancreatic cancer.

A University of Minnesota researcher spent 14 years tracking more than 60,500 people in Singapore to study the effects of drinking sugar-packed soft drinks.

His conclusion: The people who consumed two or more soft drinks a week had an almost 90 percent increased risk of pancreatic cancer compared with those who drank less. In all, 140 pancreatic cancer cases were reported, according to University of Minnesota School of Public Health researcher Mark Pereira. His findings are published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The high levels of sugar in the drinks may be boosting insulin in the body, contributing to growth of cancer, Pereira says.

The study is the latest to slam the soft-drink industry, which is dominated by Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. New York City has an aggressive campaign to warn about the health effects of drinking sugary sodas, and some politicians have proposed taxing soft drinks.

A caveat to the study: A peer review by Yale Cancer Center's associate director Susan Mayne calls the findings "intriguing" but says the study has some limitations. She notes that there were a relatively small number of cases of cancer and some of the soft-drink consumers also were smokers and red-meat eaters, which should be taken into account.