A Higher Dietary Inflammatory Index Score is Associated with a Higher Risk of Incidence and Mortality of Cancer: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta‑Analysis

Inflamation is widely known as an adaptive pathophysiological response in a variety of cancers. There is an expanding body of research on the key role of diet in inflammation, a risk factor for all types of cancer. Dietary inflammatory index (DII) was recently develpoed to evalute the inflammatory potential of a diet either as anti‑inflammatory or pro‑inflammatory. In fact, several studies have shown the association of DII and risk of different cancer types. The aim of this meta‑analysis was to investigate the association of DII with risk of incidence and mortality of any cancer types.

We searched PubMed‑Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science databases for pertient studies util January, 2017. All studies conducted to investigate the association of DII and incidence, mortality, and hospitalization of all cancer types were included. According to degree of heterogeneity, fixed‑ or random‑effect model was employed by STATA software.

Total 38 studies were eligible for the meta‑analysis. The results show that a higher level of DII increases the risk for all cancer types incidence by 32% (OR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.22‑1.42) including digestive tract cancers (OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.33‑1.78), hormone‑dependent cancers (OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.04‑1.24), respiratory tract cancers (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.11‑2.17), and urothelial cancers (OR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.01‑1.73). Moreover, a higher level of DII is in association with a higher risk for mortality caused by all types of cancer by 16% (OR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.01‑1.32). In addition, meta‑regression analysis reveals that the design of study can have a significant effect on the association of DII and incidence of all cancer types (slope: 0.54; P = 0.05). The stratified meta‑analysis shows that the association of DII and incidence of all cancer types in case‑control studies (OR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.36‑1.71) were more prominent than cohort studies (OR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.07‑1.30).

This study shows that a higher level of DII is associated with a higher risk of incidence and mortality of all cancer types. The findings of the present study suggest that modifying inflammatory properties of dietary patterns can reduce the risk of incidence and mortality of all cancer types.