Does chronic pancreatitis lead to pancreatic cancer?

Usually not: Chronic pancreatitis by itself is a serious illness with a 50% mortality rate over 20-25 years. People with garden variety chronic pancreatitis do not have an appreciable increase in incidence of pancreatic cancer; however, the small number of people with hereditary pancreatitis have a 40% life time risk of cancer of pancreas.

Increased risk: The main risk factors appear to be smoking, diabetes, excessive alcohol intake, and chronic pancreatitis. However, none of these are terribly strong associations like, for example, the link between smoking and lung cancer.