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Red and processed meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

Background

The associations between red and processed meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk remain inconclusive. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyze these associations.

Methods

We searched PubMed and EMBASE to identify studies published between the databases’ dates of inception and May 2019.

Results

We ultimately selected 33 eligible studies for analysis. We found that the summary relative risks for the associations between meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk were positive for the case–control studies (P < 0.05), but negative for the cohort studies included in the analysis (P > 0.05). Subtype analysis indicated that red and processed meat consumption was not associated with the risks of esophageal adenocarcinoma (P > 0.05) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (P > 0.05) in the cohort studies.

Conclusions

We found case–control but not cohort studies to associate consumption of red and processed meat with the risk of esophageal cancer. Further large prospective studies are needed to validate these findings.

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Funding

This work was supported by the funds of the Innovation Funds of Navy General Hospital (CXPY201801) and the Bethune Charitable Foundation HZB-20181119-71.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Navy General Hospital of PLA, 6 Fucheng Road, Beijing, China

    Z. Zhao & C. Zhang

  2. Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China

    F. Wang & D. Chen

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  1. Z. Zhao
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  2. F. Wang
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  3. D. Chen
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  4. C. Zhang
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Contributions

Zhanwei Zhao, and Fei Wang wrote the main manuscript text, participated in the design of the work. Di Chen participated in the analysis of the data and prepared figures. Chaojun Zhang carried out the study design, the analysis and interpretation of the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors have reviewed the manuscript. Zhanwei Zhao, Fei Wang and Di Chen contributed equally to this work.

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Correspondence to C. Zhang.

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This work described was original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed. Our meta-analysis did not involve human participants and animals.

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Zhao, Z., Wang, F., Chen, D. et al. Red and processed meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Transl Oncol 22, 532–545 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-019-02157-0

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