SynthesisEuropean journal of nutrition2024
Protein intake and cancer: an umbrella review of systematic reviews for the evidence-based guideline of the German Nutrition Society.
Synthesis in European journal of nutrition, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metabolic Dysfunction and Related Dietary Exposures in Relation to Pancreatic Cancer Risk: A Review of the Evidence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Frailty before disease onset: risk of mortality and chronic conditions in disease-free middle-aged adults.GeroScience · 2026Article
- The nutrigenomic-epigenetic axis in cancer: from dietary bioactives to precision oncology.Nutrition & metabolism · 2026Review
- The association between plant protein intake and cancer risk: a prospective cohort study.Nutrition journal · 2026Article
- Intersection of Precision Nutrition and Bladder Cancer: A Narrative State-of-the-Art Review of Potential Applications and Challenges.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors at 12 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeIt has been proposed that a higher habitual protein intake may increase cancer risk, possibly via upregulated insulin-like growth factor signalling. Since a systematic evaluation of human studies on protein intake and cancer risk based on a standardised assessment of systematic reviews (SRs) is lacking, we carried out an umbrella review of SRs on protein intake in relation to risks of different types of cancer.
methodsFollowing a pre-specified protocol (PROSPERO: CRD42018082395), we retrieved SRs on protein intake and cancer risk published before January 22th 2024, and assessed the methodological quality and outcome-specific certainty of the evidence using a modified version of AMSTAR 2 and NutriGrade, respectively. The overall certainty of evidence was rated according to predefined criteria.
resultsTen SRs were identified, of which eight included meta-analyses. Higher total protein intake was not associated with risks of breast, prostate, colorectal, ovarian, or pancreatic cancer incidence. The methodological quality of the included SRs ranged from critically low (kidney cancer), low (pancreatic, ovarian and prostate cancer) and moderate (breast and prostate cancer) to high (colorectal cancer). The outcome-specific certainty of the evidence underlying the reported findings on protein intake and cancer risk ranged from very low (pancreatic, ovarian and prostate cancer) to low (colorectal, ovarian, prostate, and breast cancer). Animal and plant protein intakes were not associated with cancer risks either at a low (breast and prostate cancer) or very low (pancreatic and prostate cancer) outcome-specific certainty of the evidence. Overall, the evidence for the lack of an association between protein intake and (i) colorectal cancer risk and (ii) breast cancer risk was rated as possible. By contrast, the evidence underlying the other reported results was rated as insufficient.
conclusionThe present findings suggest that higher total protein intake may not be associated with the risk of colorectal and breast cancer, while conclusions on protein intake in relation to risks of other types of cancer are restricted due to insufficient evidence.
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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.