Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages daily may raise the risk of dying from obesity-related cancers, new research shows.

The study, which included more than 900,000 participants, contributes to previous research suggesting that sugary beverages increase the risk of cancer and cancer-related mortality.

A more surprising finding is that consuming artificially sweetened beverages was linked to an increased risk of death from pancreatic cancer.

"This finding is very interesting," said Marjorie McCullough, ScD, RD, senior scientific director of epidemiology research, American Cancer Society. She noted that other studies that examined an association between artificially sweetened beverages and pancreatic cancer did not reveal a statistically significant association.

"Our study is the first, to our knowledge, that has found a statistically significant positive association, and it will be important to replicate this finding," said McCullough.

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