ReviewEuropean journal of clinical nutrition2003
Dairy products and colorectal cancer. A review of possible mechanisms and epidemiological evidence.
Review in European journal of clinical nutrition, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 191 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Dietary trans fatty acids and risk of colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.European journal of nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- An umbrella review of the evidence associating diet and cancer risk at 11 anatomical sites.Nature communications · 2021Pooled it
- Role of Diet in Colorectal Cancer Incidence: Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses of Prospective Observational Studies.JAMA network open · 2021Pooled it
- Associations between nutritional factors and KRAS mutations in colorectal cancer: a systematic review.BMC cancer · 2020Pooled it
- Milk and Dairy Product Consumption and Bladder Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2019Pooled it
- Association Between Dairy Product Consumption and Colorectal Cancer Risk in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Epidemiologic Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2019Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Consumption of Yogurt and the Incident Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Nine Cohort Studies.Nutrients · 2017Pooled it
- Unpasteurized milk consumption and subsequent risk of cancer.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2008Trial
- The healthy eating index 2020 and colorectal cancer risk: a prospective study based on the PLCO cohort.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Hexanoic Acid Intake Enhances Anti-Tumor Immune Responses in Colorectal Cancer by Reducing the Immunosuppressive Function of Tregs.Molecular nutrition & food research · 2025Article
- Review
- Sex-specific associations of empirically derived dietary patterns with colorectal cancer risk in a Korean population: a case‒control study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The Dairy and Cancer Controversy: Milking the Evidence.Current oncology reports · 2024Review
- Consumption of dairy products and odds of ulcerative colitis: An Iranian case-control study.Food science & nutrition · 2024Article
- Pre- and post-diagnostic dairy intake in relation to recurrence and all-cause mortality in people with stage I-III colorectal cancer.European journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Associations of intakes of total protein, protein from dairy sources, and dietary calcium with risks of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer: a prospective analysis in UK Biobank.British journal of cancer · 2023Article
- Risk factors of colorectal cancer: the comparison of selected nutritional behaviors of medical and non-medical students.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThis review provides an overview of the principal hypotheses and epidemiological evidence of the possible links between colorectal cancer and intake of milk and/or dairy products.
methodsThe first section outlines the main hypotheses about the possible effect of calcium, vitamin D, fats and other milk components. The possible role of acid lactic bacteria in fermented products is also discussed. The second section is a summary of the published epidemiological evidence. The results on milk, cheese and yoghurt are summarized using a meta-analytical approach. The results of studies on calcium and vitamin D are briefly described.
resultsCase-control studies are heterogeneous and, on average, do not provide evidence of association between total intake of total dairy products, milk, cheese or yoghurt and colorectal cancer risk. The average result from cohort studies support the hypothesis of a protective effect of total dairy products (odds ratio (OR): 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.52-0.74; P heterogeneity test: 0.93) and for milk (OR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.68-0.95; P heterogeneity: 0.77). No association was found between cheese (OR: 1.10; 95% CI: 0.88-1.36; P heterogeneity: 0.55) or yoghurt (OR: 1.03; 95% CI: 0.83-1.28; P heterogeneity: 0.69) in cohort studies.
conclusionsCohort studies consistently found a protective effect of total dairy products and milk intake, but the evidence is not supported by case-control studies. No relationship was found with cheese or yoghurt intake. As the number of cohort studies is still limited, their results need to be confirmed by other prospective studies.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.