Coffee Consumption and Pancreatic Cancer Risk: A Meta-Epidemiological Study of Population-based Cohort Studies

Previous systematic reviews evaluating the association between coffee consumption and pancreatic cancer showed inconsistent results. The aim was to conduct a meta-epidemiological study to explore further the association between coffee consumption and the incidence of pancreatic cancer.

The selection criteria were defined as a population-based prospective cohort study reporting adjusted relative risk (RR) and their 95% confidence interval (95%CI) of pancreatic cancer occurrence according to coffee consumption. Adjusted RR for the highest versus the lowest level of coffee consumption in each study was extracted. A fixed-effect model was applied to calculate a summary RR (sRR) and its 95%CI. Two-stage random-effects dose-response meta-analysis (DRMA) was performed to estimate the incidence risk per unit dose (cup per day).

Twelve cohort studies were selected for meta-analysis. The total number of cohort participants was 3,230,053, and pancreatic cancer incidents were 10,587. The sRR of pancreatic cancer risk for the highest versus the lowest level of coffee consumption indicated no statistical significance (sRR=0.98, 95% CI: 0.88-1.10; I-squared=0.0%). Two-stage random-effect DRMA showed the non-linear relationship between the amount of coffee consumption and pancreatic cancer risk. And the RR for an increment of one cup per day of coffee consumption was 0.97 (95%CI: 0.91-1.04, P=0.42), without statistically significant.

There was no association between coffee consumption habits and pancreatic cancer risk. And there was no statistical significance in the dose-response relationship between the amount of coffee consumption and pancreatic cancer risk. Finding the turning point would be important because it can be critical information for the prevention of pancreatic cancer. 
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