Fish consumption could reduce the risk of oral cancer in Europeans: A meta-analysis

More and more researches focused on studying the relationship of fish consumption with the risk of oral cancer, among which discrepancies have risen. The current study aimed to evaluate the possible relationship about fish consumption and oral cancer risk.

The PubMed, Web of Science and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched up to May 31th, 2019. Pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated using a random-effect model by Stata 12.0 software.

A total of 15 publications involving 5211 cases and 70,005 participants were used in the current study. Overall, a significantly reduced association about fish consumption on oral cancer risk was found in all included subjects (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.64-0.85). Subgroup analysis by geographic location suggested that highest category of fish consumption compared with lowest category had an inverse association on oral cancer risk in Europeans only (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.55-0.82), instead of other populations. No publication bias was detected.

In summary, our results indicated that fish consumption may contribute to the lower development of oral cancer in European populations, instead of other populations.