pone.0096102

Background Increasing laboratory findings indicate that n-3 fatty acids, mainly derived from fish, inhibit cancer development and progression, but results from epidemiologic studies have been in-consistent and inconclusive. Objective To evaluate the association of fish intake with risk of liver cancer by conducting a meta-analysis. Methods Published case-control/cohort studies that evaluated the relationship between total fish in-take and risk of liver cancer were found on PubMed and EMBASE. The pooled relative risks (RRs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained with the random-effects model. Results Five retrospective case-control studies and 5 prospective cohort studies were included in the final analysis, involving a total of 3 624 liver cancer cases. Comparing the highest with the lowest category of total fish intake, the pooled RRs of liver cancer were 0.79 (95 % CI, 0.59-1.06) for case-control studies, 0.82 (95 % CI, 0.70-0.96) for cohort studies and 0.82 (95 % CI, 0.71-0.94) for all studies combined. The protective effects of total fish intake against liver cancer were confirmed by stratified and sensitivity analyses. In addition, an in-crease in fish intake of 1 serving/week was estimated to be significantly associated with 6% lower risk of liver cancer (RR = 0.94, 95 % CI, 0.91-0.98). Conclusions Findings from this meta-analysis suggest that a higher fish intake is associated with re-duced risk of liver cancer