Abstract
The associations between dietary fat and fatty acid (FA) intakes and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk have been inconsistent in previous studies. We conducted a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies to evaluate these associations. We identified relevant studies by searching PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases. We used random-effects models to estimate summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Overall, the search yielded 20 studies (1 pooled analysis of 12 cohort studies, 5 cohorts, and 14 case-control studies). The summary RR for EOC for the highest versus lowest categories of total dietary fat intake was 1.12 (95%CI= 0.95-1.33; I2 = 77.4%; n = 14). The RRs were not significant when fats were divided into plant-based fats (RR = 0.93, 95%CI = 0.77-1.13; n = 6), animal-based fats (RR = 1.15, 95%CI = 0.95-1.39; n = 8), dairy-based fats (RR = 1.02, 95%CI = 0.88-1.18; n = 3), saturated FAs (RR = 1.04, 95%CI = 0.93-1.17; n = 12), monounsaturated FAs (RR = 0.98, 95%CI = 0.84-1.13; n = 10), polyunsaturated FAs (RR = 0.96, 95%CI = 0.81-1.12; n = 10), and trans-unsaturated FAs (RR = 1.15, 95%CI = 0.98-1.36; n = 3). Similar non-significant results were also observed in most of the subgroup and sensitivity analyses. The findings of this meta-analysis suggest a lack of evidence for associations between dietary fat and FA intakes and EOC risk. Further analyses should be conducted to assess the associations with other types of fat, and the results should be stratified by tumor invasiveness and EOC histology.
Highlights
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer worldwide, accounting for approximately 240,000 cases and 150,000 deaths in 2012 [1]
90% of invasive ovarian cancers are classified as epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), which arises from the surface epithelium of the ovary
Experimental studies have hypothesized that high dietary fat intake may expose the ovarian epithelium to high levels of endogenous estrogens, which may trigger the development of EOC through cell damage and proliferation [7,8,9]
Summary
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer worldwide, accounting for approximately 240,000 cases and 150,000 deaths in 2012 [1]. A pooled analysis of 12 cohort studies in 2006 reported an opposite conclusion that indicated that intakes of total fat, planted-based fat, animalbased fat, monounsaturated FAs, polyunsaturated FAs, and trans-unsaturated FAs were not associated with EOC risk [12]. A comprehensive assessment of the relationships between intakes of specific types of fat (i.e. planted-based and animal-based fats and monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans-unsaturated FAs) and the risk of EOC has not been reported. We conducted this meta-analysis of epidemiological studies to systematically assess the evidence of associations between dietary fat and FA intakes with EOC risk
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