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Meta-Analysis
. 2013 Sep 26;8(9):e75559.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075559. eCollection 2013.

Association between Helicobacter pylori infection and pancreatic cancer development: a meta-analysis

Mingjia Xiao  1 , Yiming Wang, Yi Gao
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Association between Helicobacter pylori infection and pancreatic cancer development: a meta-analysis

Mingjia Xiao et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Pancreatic cancer is one of the most troublesome malignancies with dismal prognosis. H. pylori has been recognized as a type I carcinogen. Several studies have evaluated the association between H. pylori infection and pancreatic cancer development, however, the conclusions are inconsistent.

Methods: Literature search was carried out in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and CNKI databases to identify eligible researches. We performed overall meta-analysis of all studies included and subgroup analysis based on regional distribution. Quality of the studies (assessed by Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale for case-control studies) and CagA+ strains of H. pylori were taken into consideration, and we conducted additional analyses including high-quality researches and those concerning CagA+ H. pylori respectively.

Results: 9 studies involving 3033 subjects (1083 pancreatic cancer cases, 1950 controls) were included. Summary OR and 95%CI of the overall meta-analysis of all included studies were 1.47 and 1.22-1.77, pooled data of the 4 high-quality studies were OR 1.28, 95%CI 1.01-1.63. OR of the 5 studies examined CagA+ strains was 1.42, corresponding 95%CI was 0.79 to 2.57. Summary estimates of subgroup analysis based on regional distribution are as follows, Europe group: OR 1.56, 95%CI 1.15-2.10; East Asia group: OR 2.01, 95%CI 1.33-3.02; North America group: OR 1.17, 95%CI 0.87-1.58. There was not obvious heterogeneity across the 9 studies. No publication bias was detected.

Conclusion: H. pylori infection is significantly, albeit weakly, associated with pancreatic cancer development. The association is prominent in Europe and East Asia, but not in North America. CagA+ H. pylori strains appear not to be associated with pancreatic cancer. However, more studies, especially prospective studies, are needed to validate our results.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow diagram of literature search and study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Overall meta-analysis of all the studies included for the association of H. pylori infection with pancreatic cancer.
OR, odds ratio. CI, confidence interval.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Meta-analysis of the four high-quality studies for the association of H. pylori infection with pancreatic cancer.
OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Meta-analysis of studies for the association of infection with CagA+ versus CagA- H. pylori strains and pancreatic cancer.
OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Subgroup analysis stratified by geographic distribution for the association of H. pylori infection with pancreatic cancer.
OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Funnel plot to detect publication bias.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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