Abstract
Objectives
The potential health benefits associated with mushroom consumption, including reductions in risk of cancer have gained recent research attention. We thus conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the association between mushrooms intake and risk of cancer at any site.
Methods
We searched MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library to identify relevant studies on mushrooms intake and cancer published from January 1, 1966 to October 1, 2019. Observational studies with relative risks (RRs) or hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of cancer risk for two or more categories of mushroom intake were eligible for the present studies. Random-effects models were used to pool study results and to assess dose-response relationships between mushroom consumption and the risk of cancer.
Results
There were 17 studies (6 cohort and 11 case-control studies) for a total of 20,797 cancer cases. Mushroom consumption was associated with lower risk of cancer – the pooled RR was 0.66 (95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 0.55–0.78) for the highest vs lowest mushroom intakes groups. There was substantial heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 77%; p for heterogeneity < 0.01). Mushroom consumption was associated with lower risk of cancer in cohort studies (RR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.82–0.99; n = 6) and case-control studies (RR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.41–0.66; n = 11). Subgroup analysis showed that the significant mushroom cancer association was only observed in studies from non-western regions (RR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.47–0.71, p = 0.02; n = 14). Mushroom consumption was associated with low risk of breast cancer (RR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.52–0.81) compared to non-breast cancer. Dose-response analysis suggested that 10 g/day increase in mushroom intakes was associated with a 17% lower risk of cancer (RR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.73–0.96, P-trend = 0.01).
Conclusions
The current meta-analysis showed a significant inverse association between greater mushroom consumption and low risk of cancer. In particular, breast cancer appeared to be the most affected site as significant association with mushroom intake were only observed for cancers at this site. Large prospective studies, ideally randomized controlled trials, are needed to investigate the association between mushrooms intake and risk of cancer.
Funding Sources
There was no external or internal funding to support this study.