Meta-analysis of fish consumption and risk of pancreatic cancer in 13 prospective studies with 1.8 million participants

A previous meta-analysis suggested no association between fish consumption and risk of pancreatic cancer. As several prospective studies with a large number of pancreatic cancer cases have emerged after that meta-analysis, we updated the evidence and examined the relationship in greater depth. We performed a literature search on PubMed and EMBASE databases through March 30, 2019 to identify potentially eligible studies. We used a random-effects model to compute summary relative risk (RR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 13 prospective studies comprising 4994 pancreatic cancer cases and 1,794,601 participants were included in the final analyses. Results of the meta-analysis showed that fish consumption was not significantly associated with risk of pancreatic cancer (RR (50-g/day) = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.95–1.12), which was confirmed when stratifying the analysis by various methodological and population characteristics. There was a suggestion of difference by adjustment for family history of pancreatic cancer (P(difference) = 0.05), with fish consumption being associated with higher risk of pancreatic cancer in studies without adjustment for participants’ family history (RR(50-g/day) = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.02–1.18), and a non-significant inverse association among studies with the adjustment (RR(50-g/day) = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.82–1.05). Results of this updated meta-analysis suggest that fish consumption is unlikely to be substantially associated with risk of pancreatic cancer.