SynthesisAdvances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.)2020
Consumption of Fish and ω-3 Fatty Acids and Cancer Risk: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies.
Synthesis in Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 93 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk factors for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: an umbrella review of meta-analyses and mendelian randomization analyses.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Fish consumption and cognitive function in aging: a systematic review of observational studies.GeroScience · 2026Pooled it
- Fish consumption and brain structure: a comprehensive systematic review of observational studies.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Pooled it
- Genetic evidence reveals phosphatidylcholine as a mediator in the causal relationship between omega-3 and multiple myeloma risk.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Associations Between Dietary Factors and Breast Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review of Evidence from the MENA Region.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Risk factors for prostate cancer: An umbrella review of prospective observational studies and mendelian randomization analyses.PLoS medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Diet and Esophageal Cancer Risk: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- High Omega-3, Low Omega-6 Diet With Fish Oil for Men With Prostate Cancer on Active Surveillance: The CAPFISH-3 Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2025Trial
- Fatty acid desaturase insertion-deletion polymorphism rs66698963 predicts colorectal polyp prevention by the n-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid: a secondary analysis of the seAFOod polyp prevention trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2024Trial
- The nutrigenomic-epigenetic axis in cancer: from dietary bioactives to precision oncology.Nutrition & metabolism · 2026Review
- Cross-population metabolome-wide Mendelian randomization study of prostate cancer risk.Research square · 2026Article
- Review
- Causal relationship between diet and common female diseases: a comprehensive Mendelian randomization study.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- The Effects of Frondanol, a Non-Polar Extract of the Atlantic Sea Cucumber, in Colon Cancer Cells.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The research progress and potential applications ofThe British journal of nutrition · 2025Review
- Associations of plasma omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids with overall and 19 site-specific cancers: A population-based cohort study in UK Biobank.International journal of cancer · 2025Article
- The Impact of Immunomodulatory Components Used in Clinical Nutrition-A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Causal Relationship Between Metabolic Traits and Risk of NSCLC: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis.Journal of Cancer · 2025Article
- Omega-6/Omega-3 Ratio as a Protective Factor in Lung Cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Study on Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Lung Adenocarcinoma Risk.Journal of Cancer · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
34 authors at 20 institutions in 11 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Multiple studies have suggested that ω-3 fatty acid intake may have a protective effect on cancer risk; however, its true association with cancer risk remains controversial. We performed an umbrella review of meta-analyses to summarize and evaluate the evidence for the association between ω-3 fatty acid intake and cancer outcomes. We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from inception to December 1, 2018. We included meta-analyses of observational studies that examined associations between intake of fish or ω-3 fatty acid and cancer risk (gastrointestinal, liver, breast, gynecologic, prostate, brain, lung, and skin) and determined the level of evidence of associations. In addition, we appraised the quality of the evidence of significant meta-analyses by using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. We initially screened 598 articles, and 15 articles, including 57 meta-analyses, were eligible. Among 57 meta-analyses, 15 reported statistically significant results. We found that 12 meta-analyses showed weak evidence of an association between ω-3 fatty acid intake and risk of the following types of cancer: liver cancer (n = 4 of 6), breast cancer (n = 3 of 14), prostate cancer (n = 3 of 11), and brain tumor (n = 2 of 2). In the other 3 meta-analyses, studies of endometrial cancer and skin cancer, there were no assessable data for determining the evidence levels. No meta-analysis showed convincing, highly suggestive, or suggestive evidence of an association. In the sensitivity analysis of meta-analyses by study design, we found weak associations between ω-3 fatty acid intake and breast cancer risk in cohort studies, but no statistically significant association in case-control studies. However, the opposite results were found in case of brain tumor risk. Although ω-3 fatty acids have been studied in several meta-analyses with regard to a wide range of cancer outcomes, only weak associations were identified in some cancer types, with several limitations. Considering the nonsignificant or weak evidence level, clinicians and researchers should cautiously interpret reported associations between ω-3 fatty acid consumption and cancer risks.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.