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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Jan 11;17(1):e0261649.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261649. eCollection 2022.

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

Christos Markellos  1 , Maria-Eleni Ourailidou  1 , Maria Gavriatopoulou  1 , Panagiotis Halvatsiotis  2 , Theodoros N Sergentanis  1 , Theodora Psaltopoulou  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

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

Christos Markellos et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flow chart presenting the successive steps in the selection of eligible studies.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Forest plot describing the association between high olive oil consumption and risk for cancer.
Apart from the overall analysis, the subanalyses on case-control (upper panels) and cohort studies (lower panels) are presented.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Forest plot describing the association between high olive oil consumption and risk for breast cancer.
Apart from the overall analysis, the subanalyses on study design are presented.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Forest plot describing the association between high olive oil consumption and risk for gastrointestinal cancer.
Apart from the overall analysis, the subanalyses per tumor site are presented.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Forest plot describing the association between high olive oil consumption and risk for upper aerodigestive tract cancer.
Apart from the overall analysis, the subanalyses per tumor site are presented.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Forest plot describing the association between high olive oil consumption and risk for urinary tract cancer.
Apart from the overall analysis, the subanalyses per tumor site are presented.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.