M. P. Pereira2, M. Cardeiro2, L. Frankel2, B. Greenfield2, O. Rashid1,2,3,4,5,6,7 1Michael and Dianne Biennes Comprehensive Cancer Center, Holy Cross Health, Fort Lauderdale, FLORIDA, USA 2Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, Fort Lauderdale, FLORIDA, USA 3University of Miami Leonard M. School of Medicine, Miami, FLORIDA, USA 4Massachusetts General Hospital, Department Of Surgery, Boston, MA, USA 5Broward Health, Fort Lauderdale, FLORIDA, USA 6Topline MD Alliance, Miami, FLORIDA, USA 7Medstar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, WASHINGTON D.C, USA
Introduction: Patients with pancreatic cancer have an unfavorable 5-year survival rate of approximately 3% due to diagnosis occurring at advanced stages. Prior research has proposed vitamin C may have a therapeutic and preventative role in pancreatic cancer.
Methods: A Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant national database was utilized to assess pancreatic cancer risk in patients with or without a history of vitamin C intake. International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes was used, specifically ICD-10 and ICD-9, between January 2010 and December 2020. Chi-squared, logistic regression, and odds ratio were used to test for significance and to estimate relative risk.
Results: 83,941 patients were identified as utilizing prescribed vitamin C. Subsequent matching by Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score and age resulted in two groups of 50,384 patients. resulted in two groups of 50,384 patients. The incidence of pancreatic cancer was 243 (0.48%) in the group with a history of vitamin C intake compared to 442 (0.88%) in the control group. The difference was statistically significant by p<3.174e-14 with an odds ratio of 0.548 (95% CI [0.468,0.641]).
Conclusion: This retrospective cohort study found a statistically significant correlation between vitamin C and subsequent incidence of pancreatic cancer. Further studies are recommended to explore vitamin C's redox and co-factor activity in the context of preventing and possibly treating pancreatic cancer, as well as take into account pancreatic cancer lifestyle risk factors such as smoking.
