ObjectiveTo evaluate the relationship between folate intake and risk of pancreatic cancer. MethodsWe searched various databases, including Cochrane Cental Register of Clinical Trials, Pubmed, EMBASE, CBMdisc, and CNKI for relevant reports; manualsearch was also done to retrieve reports from the references of identified ones. According to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, prospective and case-control studies on the relationship of folate intake with risk of pancreatic cancer were included. After evaluating the quality of studies, we performed meta-analysis by Stata version 11 software. ResultsA total of 6 cohort studies and 3 case-control studies, which involving 2, 209 patients, were included in the present analysis. The results of meta-analysis showed that people with highest dietary folate intake was associated with a 28% reduced risk of pancreatic cancer compared with those with the lowest dietary folate intake, and this descending trend of risk was more obvious in the cohort studies with relative risk(RR) as the effect size (pooled RR=0.51 \[95%CI,0.29-0.89\], P=0.017); meanwhile, the pooled odds ratio(OR) in the case-control studies was 0.79 (95%CI \[0.66-0.94\], P=0.008). People with the highest total folate intake (dietary and supplement folate) was associated with a 33% reduced risk of pancreatic cancer compared with those with the lowest one, with the pooled OR in the case-control studies being 0.53 (95%CI \[0.30-0.96\], P=0.036) . ConclusionThe findings in this study indicate that increase of total folate (dietary and supplement folate) and dietary folate intake may be a protective factor for pancreatic cancer.