Summary of study characteristics.

BackgroundGlycemic disorder is closely related to the risk of pancreatic cancer, but previous studies focused on the influence of diabetes. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the influence of prediabetes, an intermediate state between normoglycemia and diabetes, on the risk of pancreatic cancer.MethodsRelevant longitudinal observational studies were identified through a search of Medline, Embase, and Web of Science databases. To minimize the influence of between-study heterogeneity, a randomized-effects model was used to pool the results.ResultsNine cohort studies including 26,444,624 subjects were available for the meta-analysis. Among them, 2,052,986 (7.8%) had prediabetes at baseline, and the participants were followed for a mean duration of 5.9 years. It was found that, compared to people with normoglycemia, those with prediabetes had a higher incidence of pancreatic cancer (risk ratio [RR]: 1.42, 95% confidence interval: 1.36 to 1.49, p2 = 0%). Sensitivity analysis performed by excluding one dataset at a time did not significantly change the results (RR: 1.38 to 1.45, p all p for subgroup difference all >0.05).ConclusionsPrediabetes may be associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer compared to normoglycemia.