AIM:To quantitatively assess the relationship between coffee consumption and incidence of pancreatic cancer in a meta-analysis of cohort studies. METHODS:We searched MEDLINE,EMBASE,Science Citation Index Expanded and bibliographies of retrieved articles.Studies were included if they reported relative risks(RRs)and corresponding 95%CIs of pancreatic cancer with respect to frequency of coffee intake.We performed random-effects meta-analyses and metaregressions of study-specific incremental estimates to determine the risk of pancreatic cancer associated with a 1 cup/d increment in coffee consumption. RESULTS:Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria, which included 671 080 individuals(1496 cancer events) with an average follow-up of 14.9 years.Compared with individuals who did not drink or seldom drank coffee per day,the pooled RR of pancreatic cancer was 0.82 (95%CI:0.69-0.95)for regular coffee drinkers,0.86 (0.76-0.96)for low to moderate coffee drinkers,and 0.68(0.51-0.84)for high drinkers.In subgroup analyses,we noted that,coffee drinking was associated witha reduced risk of pancreatic cancer in men,while this association was not seen in women.These associations were also similar in studies from North America,Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. CONCLUSION:Findings from this meta-analysis suggest that there is an inverse relationship between coffee drinking and risk of pancreatic cancer. AIM: To quantitatively assess the relationship between coffee consumption and incidence of pancreatic cancer in a meta-analysis of cohort studies. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index Expanded and bibliographies of retrieved articles. Numbers were included if they reported relative risks (RRs) and corresponding 95% CIs of pancreatic cancer with respect to frequency of coffee intake. We performed random-effects meta-analyzes and metaregressions of study-specific incremental estimates to determine the risk of pancreatic cancer associated with a 1 cup / d increment in coffee consumption. RESULTS: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria, which included 671 080 individuals (1496 cancer events) with an average follow-up of 14.9 years. Compared with the persons who did not drink or seldom drank coffee per day, the pooled RR for pancreatic cancer was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.69-0.95) for regular coffee drinkers, 0.86 (0.76-0.96) for low to moderate coffee drinkers, and 0.68 (0.51-0.84) for high dri nkers.In subgroup analyzes, we noted that, coffee drinking was associated witha reduced risk of pancreatic cancer in men, while this association was not seen in women. the associations were also similar in studies from North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. CONCLUSION: Findings from this meta-analysis suggest that there is an inverse relationship between coffee drinking and risk of pancreatic cancer.