SynthesisBMC cancer2012
Arachidonic acid and cancer risk: a systematic review of observational studies.
Synthesis in BMC cancer, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- N-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Risk of Cancer: Accumulating Evidence from Prospective Studies.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Article
- Inflammation- and resolution-programmed myeloid circuits govern therapeutic resistance in epithelial and mesenchymal triple-negative breast cancer.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Article
- An update on schistosomicide and tumoricide in the future: arachidonic acid.Lipids in health and disease · 2025Review
- Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Skin Cancer: Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Annals of dermatology · 2025Article
- Association between red blood cell fatty acids composition and risk of esophageal cancer: a hospital-based case-control study.Lipids in health and disease · 2025Article
- Validity of the Intake of Sugars, Amino Acids, and Fatty Acids Estimated Using a Self-administered Food Frequency Questionnaire in Middle-aged and Elderly Japanese: The Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study for the Next Generation (JPHC-NEXT) Protocol Area.Journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Multi-omics machine learning to study host-microbiome interactions in early-onset colorectal cancer.NPJ precision oncology · 2024Article
- New Insights into Prospective Health Potential of ω-3 PUFAs.Current nutrition reports · 2023Review
- Structural Characteristics of PON1 with Leu55Met and Gln192Arg Variants Influencing Oxidative-Stress-Related Diseases: An Integrated Molecular Modeling and Dynamics Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- The physiological and pathological properties of Mead acid, an endogenous multifunctional n-9 polyunsaturated fatty acid.Lipids in health and disease · 2023Review
- Phospholipase Family Enzymes in Lung Cancer: Looking for Novel Therapeutic Approaches.Cancers · 2023Review
- The association between genetically elevated polyunsaturated fatty acids and risk of cancer.EBioMedicine · 2023Article
- Lysophosphatidylcholine-DHA Specifically Induces Cytotoxic Effects of the MDA-MB-231 Human Breast Cancer Cell LineNutrients · 2023Article
- Mechanisms of Arachidonic Acid In Vitro Tumoricidal Impact.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Emerging roles of polyunsaturated fatty acid synthesis pathway in colorectal cancer.Animal cells and systems · 2023Review
- Recent insights into dietary ω-6 fatty acid health implications using a systematic review.Food science and biotechnology · 2022Review
- Association of dietaryFrontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Depletion of essential fatty acids in muscle is associated with shorter survival of cancer patients undergoing surgery-preliminary report.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAn n-6 essential fatty acid, arachidonic acid (ARA) is converted into prostaglandin E2, which is involved in tumour extension. However, it is unclear whether dietary ARA intake leads to cancer in humans. We thus systematically evaluated available observational studies on the relationship between ARA exposure and the risk of colorectal, skin, breast, prostate, lung, and stomach cancers.
methodsWe searched the PubMed database for articles published up to May 17, 2010. 126 potentially relevant articles from the initial search and 49,670 bibliographies were scrutinised to identify eligible publications by using predefined inclusion criteria. A comprehensive literature search yielded 52 eligible articles, and their reporting quality and methodological quality was assessed. Information on the strength of the association between ARA exposure and cancer risk, the dose-response relationship, and methodological limitations was collected and evaluated with respect to consistency and study design.
resultsFor colorectal, skin, breast, and prostate cancer, 17, 3, 18, and 16 studies, respectively, were identified. We could not obtain eligible reports for lung and stomach cancer. Studies used cohort (n = 4), nested case-control (n = 12), case-control (n = 26), and cross-sectional (n = 12) designs. The number of subjects (n = 15 - 88,795), ARA exposure assessment method (dietary intake or biomarker), cancer diagnosis and patient recruitment procedure (histological diagnosis, cancer registries, or self-reported information) varied among studies. The relationship between ARA exposure and colorectal cancer was inconsistent based on ARA exposure assessment methodology (dietary intake or biomarker). Conversely, there was no strong positive association or dose-response relationship for breast or prostate cancer. There were limited numbers of studies on skin cancer to draw any conclusions from the results.
conclusionsThe available epidemiologic evidence is weak because of the limited number of studies and their methodological limitations, but nonetheless, the results suggest that ARA exposure is not associated with increased breast and prostate cancer risk. Further evidence from well-designed observational studies is required to confirm or refute the association between ARA exposure and risk of cancer.
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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.