Red and processed meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background The associations between red and processed meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk remain inconclusive. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyze these associations. Methods We searched PubMed and EMBASE to identify studies published between the databases’ dates of inception and May 2019. Results We ultimately selected 33 eligible studies for analysis. We found that the summary relative risks for the associations between meat consumption and esophageal cancer risk were positive for the case–control studies ( P < 0.05), but negative for the cohort studies included in the analysis ( P > 0.05). Subtype analysis indicated that red and processed meat consumption was not associated with the risks of esophageal adenocarcinoma ( P > 0.05) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ( P > 0.05) in the cohort studies. Conclusions We found case–control but not cohort studies to associate consumption of red and processed meat with the risk of esophageal cancer. Further large prospective studies are needed to validate these findings.