Olive oil intake and cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: PloS one 2022-01, Vol.17 (1), p.e0261649
• Main Authors: Markellos, Christos, Ourailidou, Maria-Eleni, Gavriatopoulou, Maria, Halvatsiotis, Panagiotis, Sergentanis, Theodoros N, Psaltopoulou, Theodora
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Breast; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Breast Neoplasms - prevention & control; Cancer; Case-Control Studies; Cell cycle; Cohort analysis; Confidence intervals; Consumption; Databases, Factual; Disease prevention; Epidemiology; Female; Gastrointestinal cancer; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - pathology; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - prevention & control; Health aspects; Health risks; Humans; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Meta-analysis; Metabolism; Neoplasms - pathology; Neoplasms - prevention & control; Nutrition research; Oil consumption; Olive oil; Olive Oil - administration & dosage; Physical Sciences; Prevention; Prostate cancer; Regression analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk; Risk Factors; Search engines; Sensitivity analysis; Statistical analysis; Subgroups; Systematic review; Urinary tract; Urologic Neoplasms - pathology; Urologic Neoplasms - prevention & control
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261649

Research evidence has established the beneficial effects of diet in cancer prevention; various epidemiological studies have suggested that olive oil component could play a role in decreasing cancer risk. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to investigate the association between olive oil consumption, cancer risk and prognosis. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases (end-of-search: May 10, 2020). Pooled relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated with random-effects (DerSimonian-Laird) models. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses and meta-regression analysis were also performed. 45 studies were included in the meta-analysis; 37 were case-control (17,369 cases and 28,294 controls) and 8 were cohort studies (12,461 incident cases in a total cohort of 929,771 subjects). Highest olive oil consumption was associated with 31% lower likelihood of any cancer (pooled RR = 0.69, 95%CI: 0.62-0.77), breast (RR = 0.67, 95%CI: 0.52-0.86), gastrointestinal (RR = 0.77, 95%CI: 0.66-0.89), upper aerodigestive (RR = 0.74, 95%CI: 0.60-0.91) and urinary tract cancer (RR = 0.46, 95%CI: 0.29-0.72). Significant overall effects spanned both Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean participants, studies presenting a multivariate and a univariate analysis and all subgroups by study quality. Olive oil consumption seems to exert beneficial actions in terms of cancer prevention. Additional prospective cohort studies on various cancer types and survivors, as well as large randomized trials, seem desirable.