Proportional mortality among alcoholics.

To test the hypothesis that there is a positive association between chronic alcoholism and carcinoma of the pancreas, the mortality experience of 1382 chronic alcoholics was studied. Analysis was limited to a comparison of observed and expected proportional mortality of different causes of death in the 894 whites who were known to have died. For carcinoma of the pancreas, 3 deaths were observed and 5.2 were expected. The observed/expected ratios for other causes of death, including other sites of cancer, were in accordance with prior studies.