Abstract
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women and several factors are involved in its onset. Green tea (GT) has been shown to have potential beneficial effects on different types of cancer. The aim of this review was to evaluate the association between GT regular consumption and risk of BC in women. The risk of BC recurrence and risk of BC in relation to menopausal status were also evaluated. A literature search of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed to perform the systematic review and meta-analysis. Full texts were downloaded for 40 studies; however, only 13 records were included in the meta-analysis. Eight were cohort studies and five were case-control studies. The pooled sample consisted of 163,810 people. An inverse statistically significant relationship between GT and BC risk, with an Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.85 ((95% CI = 0.80–0.92), p = 0.000)), was found. Egger’s linear regression test did not show a potential publication bias (intercept 0.33, t = 0.40, p = 0.695), which was also confirmed by the symmetry of the funnel plot. Moreover, no high statistical heterogeneity (Chi2 = 31.55, df = 13, I2 = 58.79%, p = 0.003) was found. The results of this meta-analysis showed a potential protective effect of GT consumption on BC, especially for BC recurrence.
Highlights
Tea is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide
From PubMed/Medline, 47 articles were retrieved, whilst 56 articles were found in Scopus and 90 in Web of Science
A further 25 studies were excluded for various reasons, mainly because no differentiation between green tea and other were excluded forinto various reasons, mainly no differentiation between green tea and other teas was taken account
Summary
Tea is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide. It is obtained from leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis (C. sinensis). The fruit of C. sinensis is three-celled and green in color, and the seed is a brown, semi-globose nut [1,2]. Young and light green leaves, as well as new shoots, are generally harvested to produce tea. Various techniques of processing tea leaves lead to three main types of tea, characterized by different polyphenols content, from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view, and by different flavors.
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