Cadmium exposure and risk of pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies and case–control studies among individuals without occupational exposure history

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly types of cancer for both genders. Classified as a human carcinogen, cadmium has been related to diverse cancers. However, the association between cadmium exposure and the risk of pancreatic cancer is still unclear. We quantitatively reviewed the observational studies on the association of cadmium exposure with pancreatic cancer risk among individuals without occupational exposure history published through July 2014 in PubMed by using a fixed-effect model. Four prospective cohort studies (112,934 participants with 335 events) and two case–control studies (177 cases and 539 controls) were identified. The summarized relative risk (RR) with a 95 % confidence interval (CI) was 2.05 (95 % CI = 1.58–2.66), comparing the highest to the lowest category of cadmium exposure. This positive association persisted in men (RR = 1.78, 95 % CI = 1.04–3.05) but not in women (RR = 1.02, 95 % CI = 0.63–1.65). Further research is needed to provide more solid evidence on the association of cadmium exposure with pancreatic cancer risk and to elucidate the underlying biological mechanism of the potential gender difference.