Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jul;27(7):837-51.
doi: 10.1007/s10552-016-0755-0. Epub 2016 May 6.

An update of the WCRF/AICR systematic literature review on esophageal and gastric cancers and citrus fruits intake

Snieguole Vingeliene  1 , Doris S M Chan  2 , Dagfinn Aune  2   3 , Ana R Vieira  2 , Elli Polemiti  2 , Christophe Stevens  2 , Leila Abar  2 , Deborah Navarro Rosenblatt  2 , Darren C Greenwood  4 , Teresa Norat  2
Affiliations

An update of the WCRF/AICR systematic literature review on esophageal and gastric cancers and citrus fruits intake

Snieguole Vingeliene et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2016 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: The 2007 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research expert report concluded that foods containing vitamin C probably protect against esophageal cancer and fruits probably protect against gastric cancer. Most of the previous evidence was from case-control studies, which may be affected by recall and selection biases. More recently, several cohort studies have examined these associations. We conducted a systematic literature review of prospective studies on citrus fruits intake and risk of esophageal and gastric cancers.

Methods: PubMed was searched for studies published until 1 March 2016. We calculated summary relative risks and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) using random-effects models.

Results: With each 100 g/day increase of citrus fruits intake, a marginally significant decreased risk of esophageal cancer was observed (summary RR 0.86, 95 % CI 0.74-1.00, 1,057 cases, six studies). The associations were similar for squamous cell carcinoma (RR 0.87, 95 % CI 0.69-1.08, three studies) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (RR 0.93, 95 % CI 0.78-1.11, three studies). For gastric cancer, the nonsignificant inverse association was observed for gastric cardia cancer (RR 0.75, 95 % CI 0.55-1.01, three studies), but not for gastric non-cardia cancer (RR 1.02, 95 % CI 0.90-1.16, four studies). Consistent summary inverse associations were observed when comparing the highest with lowest intake, with statistically significant associations for esophageal (RR 0.77, 95 % CI 0.64-0.91, seven studies) and gastric cardia cancers (RR 0.62, 95 % CI 0.39-0.99, three studies).

Conclusions: Citrus fruits may decrease the risk of esophageal and gastric cardia cancers, but further studies are needed.

Keywords: Citrus fruits; Esophageal cancer; Gastric cancer; Meta-analysis; Systematic literature review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Summary RRs of esophageal cancer, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma per 100 g/day increase in citrus fruits intake (a) and in the highest versus lowest analysis (b)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Summary RRs of gastric, gastric cardia and non-cardia cancers per 100 g/day increase in citrus fruits intake (a) and in the highest versus lowest analysis (b)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int J Cancer. 2015;136(5):E359–E386. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29210. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pennathur A, Gibson MK, Jobe BA, Luketich JD. Oesophageal Carcinoma. Lancet. 2013;381(9864):400–412. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60643-6. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Steevens J, Botterweck AA, Dirx MJ, van den Brandt PA, Schouten LJ. Trends in incidence of oesophageal and stomach cancer subtypes in Europe. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2010;22(6):669–678. - PubMed
    1. Thrift AP, Whiteman DC. The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma continues to rise: analysis of period and birth cohort effects on recent trends. Ann Oncol. 2012;23(12):3155–3162. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mds181. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Napier KJ, Scheerer M, Misra S. Esophageal cancer: a review of epidemiology, pathogenesis, staging workup and treatment modalities. World J Gastrointest Oncol. 2014;6(5):112–120. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v6.i5.112. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Supplementary concepts