Search

Supplemental digital content is available in the text., Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the connection between pancreatic cancer (PC) and genetic variants associated with chronic pancreatitis via systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods The data search was performed in 3 major databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library). The selected studies have looked into the presence of the pancreatitis-associated genes in patients with PC and in control subjects, the outcome being the frequency of the mutations in the 2 groups. For the binary outcomes, pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Results Ten articles proved to be eligible for the qualitative synthesis, and 8 articles were suitable for statistical analysis. Six case-control studies, comprising 929 PC cases and 1890 control subjects for serine protease inhibitor Kazal type 1 (SPINK1) mutations, and 5 case-control studies, comprising 1674 PC cases and 19,036 control subjects for CFTR mutations, were enrolled in our analysis. SPINK1 mutations showed no association with PC (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 0.67–3.45; P = 0.315), whereas mutations in CFTR modestly increased the risk of PC (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.07–1.84; P = 0.013). Conclusion Our meta-analysis showed that mutations in CFTR modestly increase the risk of PC, whereas no association was found between SPINK1 and PC.