SynthesisMedicine2020
Omega-3 PUFA intake and the risk of digestive system cancers: A meta-analysis of observational studies.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma: an umbrella review of systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Dietary Factors and Pancreatic Cancer Risk: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses of Prospective Observational Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Pooled it
- Association of dietary fat type with abdominal bloating: a case control study.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Article
- The ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids mediating the effect of gastroesophageal reflux disease on pancreatic cancer risk: a two-step mediation Mendelian randomisation study.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Risk assessment of digestive cancers with the modified EAT-Lancet diet pattern: a prospective cohort study based on UK Biobank.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Skin Cancer: Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Annals of dermatology · 2025Article
- Transcriptome-wide Mendelian randomisation exploring dynamic CD4+ T cell gene expression in colorectal cancer development.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Causal Relationship Between Metabolic Traits and Risk of NSCLC: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis.Journal of Cancer · 2025Article
- Common Risk Factors in Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Narrative Review.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre · 2025Review
- Exploring the causal relationship between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and kidney cancer: a Mendelian randomization study.Translational cancer research · 2024Article
- Understanding the Role of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in the Development and Prevention of Cancer.Cancer treatment and research · 2024Review
- The association between genetically elevated polyunsaturated fatty acids and risk of cancer.EBioMedicine · 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
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA growing number of epidemiological studies have suggested a possible association between long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake and the risk of cancers, but the results have been inconsistent. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the association of omega-3 PUFA consumption with digestive system cancers.
methodsRelevant observational studies were identified through a comprehensive search of PubMed, Embase, and the Web of Science through December 2019 and by reviewing the references of the retrieved articles. The relative risks (RRs) of digestive system cancers associated with omega-3 PUFA intake were estimated using a random-effect model and were stratified by region, sex, study design, type of omega-3 PUFAs, smoking status, alcohol consumption, BMI, and physical activity.
resultsTwenty-five studies (8 case-control studies and 17 cohort studies) involving 1,247,271 participants and 23,173 patients with digestive system cancers were included in this analysis. The risk of digestive system cancers decreased by 17% in individuals who consumed omega-3 PUFAs (RR = 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.76-0.91). The risk estimates of digestive system cancers varied by cancer sites, study location, study design, type of omega-3 PUFAs, and other confounders (smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, and physical activity). Visual inspection of funnel plots and the Begg's and Egger's tests revealed no evidence of publication bias.
conclusionThe findings show that omega-3 PUFAs should be as a healthy dietary component for the prevention of digestive system cancers. Cancer incidence decreases with increasing omega-3 PUFAs intake for most digestive system cancer sites. The relation between omega-3 PUFAs and digestive system cancers RR is similar among different populations.
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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.