ArticleJournal of the National Cancer Institute2012
Circulating carotenoids and risk of breast cancer: pooled analysis of eight prospective studies.
Article in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 100 papers, 3 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
100 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 241 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Association between Circulating Carotenoids and Risk of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Pooled it
- Fruit and vegetable consumption and incident breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies.British journal of cancer · 2021Pooled it
- Dietary intake and blood concentrations of antioxidants and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer, and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2018Pooled it
- Nutritional Formulation for Patients with Angelman Syndrome: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Exogenous Ketones.The Journal of nutrition · 2021Trial
- Limited appearance of apocarotenoids is observed in plasma after consumption of tomato juices: a randomized human clinical trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2018Trial
- Absorption and Distribution Kinetics of the 13C-Labeled Tomato Carotenoid Phytoene in Healthy Adults.The Journal of nutrition · 2016Trial
- Planetary Health Diet Index and breast cancer risk.British journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Carotenoids in the Context of the Mediterranean Dietary Pattern: From Food Matrix and Bioavailability to Biomarkers and Human Health.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Lycopene, Carotenoids, and Retinoids in Cancer Chemoprevention: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Implications.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Association of serum vitamins and carotenoids with breast cancer status among adult women in NHANES 2017-2018: a cross-sectional study.Translational cancer research · 2026Article
- Oxidative stress and antioxidants in breast cancer: a double-edged sword.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Interplay of oxidative stress and antioxidant mechanisms in cancer development and progression.Archives of toxicology · 2026Review
- Carotenoids identified from slipper-shaped oyster Magallana bilineata powder residue exhibit potent biological activities.Journal of food and drug analysis · 2025Article
- Vitamins A and D and Their Combinations for Breast and Colorectal Cancers: Analysis of the Clinical, Epidemiological, Preclinical and Transcriptomic Data.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Lycopene as a potential anticancer agent: Current evidence on synergism, drug delivery systems and epidemiology (Review).Oncology letters · 2025Review
- Dietary carotenoids and breast cancer risk: evidence from a large population-based incident case-control study.Nutrition & metabolism · 2025Article
- Carotenoids and Their Interaction with the Immune System.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Siphonaxanthin inhibits the growth of breast cancer cell subtypes by modulating the expression of cellular proteins associated with antioxidant defence, cell survival and apoptosis signaling.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Article
- Pelvic Pain Symptoms and Inflammation Among Adolescents and Adults with and Without Endometriosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Impact of Paracoccus sp. EGY7 carotenoids on triple-negative breast cancer cells: invitro study.AMB Express · 2025Article
40 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
23 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCarotenoids, micronutrients in fruits and vegetables, may reduce breast cancer risk. Most, but not all, past studies of circulating carotenoids and breast cancer have found an inverse association with at least one carotenoid, although the specific carotenoid has varied across studies.
methodsWe conducted a pooled analysis of eight cohort studies comprising more than 80% of the world's published prospective data on plasma or serum carotenoids and breast cancer, including 3055 case subjects and 3956 matched control subjects. To account for laboratory differences and examine population differences across studies, we recalibrated participant carotenoid levels to a common standard by reassaying 20 plasma or serum samples from each cohort together at the same laboratory. Using conditional logistic regression, adjusting for several breast cancer risk factors, we calculated relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using quintiles defined among the control subjects from all studies. All P values are two-sided.
resultsStatistically significant inverse associations with breast cancer were observed for α-carotene (top vs bottom quintile RR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.71 to 1.05, P(trend) = .04), β-carotene (RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.70 to 0.98, P(trend) = .02), lutein+zeaxanthin (RR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.70 to 1.01, P(trend) = .05), lycopene (RR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.62 to 0.99, P(trend) = .02), and total carotenoids (RR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.68 to 0.96, P(trend) = .01). β-Cryptoxanthin was not statistically significantly associated with risk. Tests for heterogeneity across studies were not statistically significant. For several carotenoids, associations appeared stronger for estrogen receptor negative (ER(-)) than for ER(+) tumors (eg, β-carotene: ER(-): top vs bottom quintile RR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.36 to 0.77, P(trend) = .001; ER(+): RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.66 to 1.04, P(trend) = .06; P(heterogeneity) = .01).
conclusionsThis comprehensive prospective analysis suggests women with higher circulating levels of α-carotene, β-carotene, lutein+zeaxanthin, lycopene, and total carotenoids may be at reduced risk of breast cancer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.