TY - JOUR
T1 - High spicy food intake may increase the risk of esophageal cancer
T2 - A meta-analysis and systematic review
AU - Xie, Peng
AU - Xia, Weihang
AU - Lowe, Scott
AU - Zhou, Zhen
AU - Ding, Ping'an
AU - Cheng, Ce
AU - Bentley, Rachel
AU - Li, Yaru
AU - Wang, Yichen
AU - Zhou, Qin
AU - Wu, Birong
AU - Gao, Juan
AU - Feng, Linya
AU - Ma, Shaodi
AU - Liu, Haixia
AU - Sun, Chenyu
N1 - Funding Information:
Peng Xie and Weihang Xia: Conceptualization; Data curation and formal analysis; Writing - original draft. Shaodi Ma, Haixia Liu, and Scott Lowe: Writing - reviewing and editing. Birong Wu, Juan Gao, and Linya Feng: Visualization, Investigation. Zhen Zhou, Ping'an Ding, and Ce Cheng: Software, Validation. Rachel Bentley and Yaru Li: Data curation and Formal analysis. Yichen Wang and Qin Zhou: Writing - review and editing. Chenyu Sun: Supervision and Project administration. The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this study. None. None.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Spicy food is popular with people around the world and reports on the association between spicy food intake and esophageal cancer (EC) risk have been controversial. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of 25 studies to provide the latest evidence for this uncertainty. We hypothesized that high spicy food intake is associated with an increased risk of EC. A database was searched to identify case-control or cohort studies of spicy food intake associated with EC through March 2022. Combined odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% CIs were used to estimate the effect of spicy food intake on EC. Subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were also performed. All data were analyzed using STATA 15.1 software. Twenty-five studies from 22 articles met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis (7810 patients with EC and 515,397 controls). Despite significant heterogeneity (P <.001), the comparison of highest versus lowest spicy food intake in each study showed a significant OR of 1.70 (95% CI, 1.30-2.22). In subgroup analyses, this positive association was found among the Chinese population, different sample sizes of EC, different sources of the control group, and different quality of articles. However, for India, as well as for other countries, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma showed no statistically significant association. This meta-analysis suggests that high levels of spicy food intake may be associated with an increased risk of EC, although 1 prospective study found an inverse association. Additional studies are necessary to confirm the relationship between spicy food and EC risk.
AB - Spicy food is popular with people around the world and reports on the association between spicy food intake and esophageal cancer (EC) risk have been controversial. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of 25 studies to provide the latest evidence for this uncertainty. We hypothesized that high spicy food intake is associated with an increased risk of EC. A database was searched to identify case-control or cohort studies of spicy food intake associated with EC through March 2022. Combined odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% CIs were used to estimate the effect of spicy food intake on EC. Subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were also performed. All data were analyzed using STATA 15.1 software. Twenty-five studies from 22 articles met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis (7810 patients with EC and 515,397 controls). Despite significant heterogeneity (P <.001), the comparison of highest versus lowest spicy food intake in each study showed a significant OR of 1.70 (95% CI, 1.30-2.22). In subgroup analyses, this positive association was found among the Chinese population, different sample sizes of EC, different sources of the control group, and different quality of articles. However, for India, as well as for other countries, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma showed no statistically significant association. This meta-analysis suggests that high levels of spicy food intake may be associated with an increased risk of EC, although 1 prospective study found an inverse association. Additional studies are necessary to confirm the relationship between spicy food and EC risk.
KW - Chili pepper
KW - Esophageal cancer
KW - Meta-analysis
KW - Observational studies
KW - Spicy food
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140909009&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nutres.2022.09.006
DO - 10.1016/j.nutres.2022.09.006
M3 - Review Article
C2 - 36215887
AN - SCOPUS:85140909009
SN - 0271-5317
VL - 107
SP - 139
EP - 151
JO - Nutrition Research
JF - Nutrition Research
ER -
