Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the association between fish consumption and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods
We identified eligible studies in MEDLINE and EMBASE up to July 2014 and the reference lists of original studies and review articles on this topic. Summary relative risks (SRR) with their 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated with a random effects model.
Results
Eleven studies (three cohort studies, seven retrospective case–control studies, and one nested case–control study) met eligibility criteria. Ten articles investigated fish consumption, two articles investigated n-3 PUFA, and two articles investigated alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). The current data suggest that fish consumption was associated with 35 % reduction in HCC risk (highest vs. lowest category SRRs = 0.65, 95 % CI 0.51–0.79; test for heterogeneity p = 0.057, I 2 = 44.1 %). n-3 PUFA was associated with 51 % reduction in HCC risk (highest vs. lowest category SRRs = 0.49, 95 % CI 0.19–0.79). However, no significant inverse association was found in ALA (SRRs = 0.70, 95 % CI 0.30–1.10).
Conclusion
Our meta-analysis of observational studies provides evidence that fish consumption and n-3 PUFA has inverse association with the risk of HCC.
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Abbreviations
- HCC:
-
Hepatocellular carcinoma
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- DM:
-
Diabetes mellitus
- PUFA:
-
Polyunsaturated fatty acids
- ALA:
-
Alpha-linolenic acid
- EPA:
-
Eicosapentaenoic acid
- DPA:
-
Docosapentaenoic acid
- DHA:
-
Docosahexaenoic acid
- HBV:
-
Hepatitis B virus
- HCV:
-
Hepatitis C virus
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Acknowledgments
The authors’ responsibilities were as follows—LS and LN: contributed to the study design and writing of the manuscript; GM and SK: contributed to the data search and data collection; GMJ, GH, and LK: contributed to the data extraction and quality assessment; and YCC: contributed to the data analysis.
Conflict of interest
This work was supported by a grant from the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (No. 2013DFA11150) and the Plan Project of Science & Technology from **ing city (2014JNNK21&2014JNYYF03). The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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Min Gao and Kai Sun have contributed equally to this study.
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Gao, M., Sun, K., Guo, M. et al. Fish consumption and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma: systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Causes Control 26, 367–376 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-014-0512-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-014-0512-1