Is infection associated with pancreatic cancer? A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Recent observational studies have investigated the association between () infection and pancreatic cancer with conflicting data. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the potential association.

DESIGN

This is a systematic review and meta-analysis.

METHODS

We searched three databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) from inception to 30 August 2022. The summary results as odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were pooled by generic inverse variance method based on random-effects model.

RESULTS

A total of 20 observational studies involving 67,718 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of data from 12 case-control studies and 5 nested case-control studies showed that there was no significant association between infection and the risk of pancreatic cancer (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 0.95-1.51,  = 0.13). Similarly, we also did not find significant association between cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) positive strains, CagA negative strains, vacuolating cytotoxin gene A (VacA) positive strains infection, and the risk of pancreatic cancer. Meta-analysis of data from three cohort studies showed that infection was not significantly associated with an increased risk of incident pancreatic cancer (HR = 1.26, 95% CI = 0.65-2.42,  = 0.50).

CONCLUSION

We found insufficient evidence to support the proposed association between infection and increased risk of pancreatic cancer. To better understand any association, future evidence from large, well-designed, high-quality prospective cohort studies that accounts for diverse ethnic populations, certain strains, and confounding factors would be useful to settle this controversy.