Matejcic M, et al. - In the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort, researchers examined the how plasma phospholipid fatty acids and pancreatic cancer risk are linked. On analyzing plasma samples collected at recruitment from 375 incident pancreatic cancer cases and 375 matched controls for fatty acid composition, they identified statistically significant inverse associations between pancreatic cancer incidence and levels of heptadecanoic acid, n-3 polyunsaturated α-linolenic acid, and docosapentaenoic acid. The long-chain n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio was noted to be positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk among current smokers. Findings thereby suggest a lower risk of pancreatic cancer in relation to higher circulating levels of saturated fatty acids with an odd number of carbon atoms and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Sex might be influencing the impact of some fatty acids on the development of pancreatic cancer; smoking seemed to modulate these impacts.