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Meta-Analysis
. 2015 Jan 23;10(1):e0096102.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096102. eCollection 2015.

Fish intake and risk of liver cancer: a meta-analysis

Rui-Xue Huang  1 , Yan-Ying Duan  1 , Jian-An Hu  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Fish intake and risk of liver cancer: a meta-analysis

Rui-Xue Huang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Increasing laboratory findings indicate that n-3 fatty acids, mainly derived from fish, inhibit cancer development and progression, but results from epidemiologic studies have been inconsistent and inconclusive.

Objective: To evaluate the association of fish intake with risk of liver cancer by conducting a meta-analysis.

Methods: Published case-control/cohort studies that evaluated the relationship between total fish intake and risk of liver cancer were found on PubMed and EMBASE. The pooled relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained with the random-effects model.

Results: Five retrospective case-control studies and 5 prospective cohort studies were included in the final analysis, involving a total of 3 624 liver cancer cases. Comparing the highest with the lowest category of total fish intake, the pooled RRs of liver cancer were 0.79 (95% CI, 0.59-1.06) for case-control studies, 0.82 (95% CI, 0.70-0.96) for cohort studies and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.71-0.94) for all studies combined. The protective effects of total fish intake against liver cancer were confirmed by stratified and sensitivity analyses. In addition, an increase in fish intake of 1 serving/week was estimated to be significantly associated with 6% lower risk of liver cancer (RR = 0.94, 95% CI, 0.91-0.98).

Conclusions: Findings from this meta-analysis suggest that a higher fish intake is associated with reduced risk of liver cancer.

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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 chart of literature search.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Relative risk (RR) of liver cancer for the highest compared with the lowest categories of fish intake.
RRs of greater than 1 represent increased risk of liver cancer associated with higher fish intake, and RRs of less than 1 represent decreased risk.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Begg’s funnel plot testing possible publication bias.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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