Biospecimen long-chain N-3 PUFA and risk of colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis of data from 60,627 individuals

PLoS One. 2014 Nov 6;9(11):e110574. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110574. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Background: Several prospective cohort and case-control studies reported the inconsistent association between biospecimen composition of C20 and C22 long-chain (LC) n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of biospecimen LC n-3 PUFA with CRC risk based on prospective cohort and case-control studies.

Methods and results: Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMBASE database were searched up to February 2014 for eligible studies. Risk ratios (RRs) or odds ratios (ORs) from prospective and case-control studies were combined using a random-effects model in the highest vs. lowest categorical analysis. Nonlinear dose-response relationships were assessed using restricted cubic spline regression models. Difference in tissue composition of LC n-3 PUFA between cases and noncases was analyzed as standardized mean difference (SMD). Three prospective cohort studies and 8 case-control studies were included in the present study, comprising 60,627 participants (1,499 CRC cases and 59,128 noncases). Higher biospecimen LC n-3 PUFA was significantly associated with a lower risk of CRC in case-control (pooled OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.59, 0.97; I2 = 10.00%) and prospective cohort studies (pooled RR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.55, 0.88; I2 = 0.00%), respectively. A significant dose-response association was found of biospecimen C20:5n-3 (P for nonlinearity = 0.02) and C22:6n-3 (P for trend = 0.01) with CRC risk, respectively. Subjects without CRC have significantly higher biospecimen compositions of C20:5n-3 (SMD: 0.27; 95%: 0.13, 0.41), C22:6n-3 (SMD: 0.23; 95%: 0.11, 0.34) and total LC n-3 PUFA (SMD: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.07, 0.37) compared with those with CRC.

Conclusions: The present evidence suggests human tissue compositions of LC n-3 PUFA may be an independent predictive factor for CRC risk, especially C20:5n-3 and C22:6n-3. This needs to be confirmed with more large-scale prospective cohort studies.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers / metabolism
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / etiology*
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Risk

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Fatty Acids, Omega-3

Grants and funding

This was an independent study; the study subsidies of postgraduate students were paid from grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 81273054) and the PhD Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No: 20120101110107). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.