Dietary flavonoid intake and the risk of digestive tract cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Several epidemiological studies have investigated the association between dietary flavonoid intake and digestive tract cancers risk; however, the results remain inconclusive. The aim of our study was to evaluate this association. PubMed and the Web of Knowledge were searched for relevant publications from inception to October 2015. The risk ratio (RR) or odds ratio (OR) with the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the highest versus the lowest categories of flavonoid intake were pooled using a fixed-effects model. A total of 15 articles reporting 23 studies were selected for the meta-analysis. In a comparison of the highest versus the lowest categories of dietary flavonoid intake, we found no significant association between flavonoid intake and oesophageal cancer (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.75–1.10; I(2) = 0.0%), colorectal cancer (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.92–1.14, I(2) = 36.2%) or gastric cancer (OR = 0.88; 95% CI = 0.74–1.04, I(2) = 63.6%). The subgroup analysis indicated an association between higher flavonoid intake and a decreased risk of gastric cancer in the European population (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.62–0.97). In conclusion, the results of this meta-analysis do not strongly support an association between dietary flavonoid intake and oesophageal or colorectal cancer. Furthermore, the subgroup analysis suggested an association between higher dietary flavonoid intake and decreased gastric cancer risk in European population.