If your family has a history of cancer and consumes a lot of sugar you may be at risk of Pancreatic cancer as a new study has found that fructose, a common sugar in western diets, contributes to the growth of cancer cells.

Researchers from the Jonsson Cancer Center took pancreatic cancer cells from patients suffering from the disease and grew them in petri dishes. They exposed one set of cells to a solution containing glucose, a sugar commonly thought to fuel cancer cell growth and normal cells, and another to a fructose solution.

They found that the cells that were exposed to the fructose solution grew and reproduced at a much faster rate than those exposed to glucose showing a multiplier effect .

"The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it's a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver," said Anthony Heaney, who led the study. "In this study, we showed that cancers can use fructose just as readily and maybe easier as glucose to fuel their growth."

Pancreatic cancer can be difficult to control once it has been diagnosed because it can easily spread to other areas of the body.