Carcinoma head of pancreas is fatal disease and has high mortatality as the

disease is being diagnosed at late stages. And even after diagnosis resectability of

disease is less and mean survival being 11–20 months after resection. And in unresectable patients mean survival is of 2 to 6 months. Aims of this study were to study alcohol consumption and smoking as risk factors for carcinoma head of pancreas. This was a case control study among patients admitted to surgical wards of Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram. 68% of cases with carcinoma head of pancreas in our study were smokers and 64% of cases with carcinoma head of pancreas in our study were alcoholics. Age>50, smoking and alcohol consumption were found to be risk factors for carcinoma head of pancreas by univariate analysis.