SynthesisBritish journal of cancer2020
Omega-3, omega-6 and total dietary polyunsaturated fat on cancer incidence: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials.
Synthesis in British journal of cancer, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 5 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
51 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- The underexplored links between cancer and the internal body climate: Implications for cancer prevention and treatment.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Dietary intake and biomarkers of alpha linolenic acid and risk of all cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of cohort studies.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Pooled it
- Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Omega-3 fatty acids for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Identification of individuals who benefit from omega-3 fatty acid supplementation to prevent coronary heart disease: a machine-learning analysis of the VITAL.European journal of epidemiology · 2025Trial
- Association of dietary patterns derived by reduced-rank regression with colorectal cancer risk and mortality.European journal of nutrition · 2024Trial
- Efficacy and Safety of Habitual Consumption of a Food Supplement Containing Miraculin in Malnourished Cancer Patients: The CLINMIR Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2024Trial
- Cross-population metabolome-wide Mendelian randomization study of prostate cancer risk.Research square · 2026Article
- Optimizing Membrane Composition With C15 and Choline: A Novel Hypothesis to Mitigate Cancer Risk.Cureus · 2025Review
- A large-scale case-control study on the association between dietary fat quality indices and risk of breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Preliminary Insights into Quality of Life and Dietary Intake in Patients with Breast Cancer on Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy.Cancers · 2025Article
- Safety First: A Comprehensive Review of Nutritional Supplements for Hair Loss in Breast Cancer Patients.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Associations of plasma omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids with overall and 19 site-specific cancers: A population-based cohort study in UK Biobank.International journal of cancer · 2025Article
- The Impact of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Cancer and Therapeutic Strategies.Current nutrition reports · 2025Review
- Population attributable fraction of dietary risk factors for cancer mortality with a focus on gastrointestinal cancers in a population based cohort study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Causal Relationship Between Metabolic Traits and Risk of NSCLC: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis.Journal of Cancer · 2025Article
- Plasma metabolomics profiles and breast cancer risk.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2024Article
- Enhancing cancer immunotherapy via inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Associations of plasma omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids with overall and 19 site-specific cancers: a population-based cohort study in UK Biobank.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe relationship between long-chain omega-3 (LCn3), alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), omega-6 and total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intakes and cancer risk is unclear.
methodsWe searched Medline, Embase, CENTRAL and trials registries for RCTs comparing higher with lower LCn3, ALA, omega-6 and/or total PUFA, that assessed cancers over ≥12 months. Random-effects meta-analyses, sensitivity analyses, subgrouping, risk of bias and GRADE were used.
resultsWe included 47 RCTs (108,194 participants). Increasing LCn3 has little or no effect on cancer diagnosis (RR1.02, 95% CI 0.98-1.07), cancer death (RR0.97, 95% CI 0.90-1.06) or breast cancer diagnosis (RR1.03, 95% CI 0.89-1.20); increasing ALA has little or no effect on cancer death (all high/moderate-quality evidence). Increasing LCn3 (NNTH 334, RR1.10, 95% CI 0.97-1.24) and ALA (NNTH 334, RR1.30, 95% CI 0.72-2.32) may slightly increase prostate cancer risk; increasing total PUFA may slightly increase risk of cancer diagnosis (NNTH 125, RR1.19, 95% CI 0.99-1.42) and cancer death (NNTH 500, RR1.10, 95% CI 0.48-2.49) but total PUFA doses were very high in some trials.
conclusionsThe most extensive systematic review to assess the effects of increasing PUFAs on cancer risk found increasing total PUFA may very slightly increase cancer risk, offset by small protective effects on cardiovascular diseases.
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.