Retrospective study of the association between metabolic syndrome and the risk of pancreatic cancer

Although previous studies have shown that metabolic syndrome (MetS) is one of the contributors of pancreatic cancer (PaC), there is no clear evidence that early stage of MetS are linked to increased incidence of PaC. A retrospective observational study in Japan (Consort diagram) followed participants with or without MetS for an average of 40.7 months. This figure shows the PaC-free survival in the cohort. PaC was diagnosed in 4.9% of the MetS participants versus 3.0% of the non-MetS participants (HR 1.37; p<0.0001). This figure shows that as the number of MetS factors increased from one to five, the incidence of PaC correspondingly increased (HR 1.11, 1.23, 1.42, 1.66, and 2.03; p<0.0001 each). The authors conclude that the study confirms an association between MetS and PaC, although causality cannot be concluded.