Pancreatic Cancer Risk in Prediabetes: A Systematic Meta-analysis Approach

Pancreatic cancer and prediabetes pose significant public health challenges. Given the lack of strong evidence we performed a meta-analysis to assess the risk of pancreatic cancer in prediabetes.

We performed a thorough search of the major databases over the last 10 years to identify relevant articles. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR) were combined to calculate the effect size (ES).

We analyzed 5 studies including 5,425,111 prediabetic individuals and 16,096,467 normoglycemic population across 5 countries with a median follow-up of 8.5 years. We identified a noteworthy association between prediabetes and pancreatic cancer, reporting an unadjusted ES of 1.36 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05-1.77, P = 0.02) and an adjusted ES of 1.40 (1.23-1.59, P < 0.01). Subgroup analyses by age revealed variations in risk, with studies involving participants aged 60 and above exhibiting a higher ES (ES 1.83, 95% CI 1.28-2.62, P < 0.01). Geographical differences were also observed, with Japanese studies reporting a higher risk (ES 1.89, 95% CI 1.15-3.10, P < 0.01) compared with those from the United States (ES 1.32, 95% CI 1.13-1.53, P < 0.01).

We identified 40% higher risk of pancreatic cancer in patients with prediabetes than those with normal blood glucose necessitating urgent attention for further research and policy change.