European journal of cancer : official journal for European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [and] European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)
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A meta-analysis was carried out, in order to summarise published data on the relationship between breast cancer, fruit and vegetable consumption and/or the intake of beta-carotene and vitamin C. Relative risks were extracted from 26 published studies from 1982 to 1997. Random and fixed effects models were used. ⋯ Summary relative risk (RR) estimates based upon a random effects model, except for beta-carotene, for 'high consumption' compared with 'low consumption', derived from the studies satisfying the inclusion criteria were as follows: vegetable consumption: RR=0.75 (95% CI (confidence interval) 0.66-0.85) from 17 studies; fruit consumption: RR=0.94 (95% CI 0.79-1.11) from 12 studies; vitamin C: RR=0.80 (95% CI 0.68-0.95) from 9 studies; beta-carotene: RR=0.82 (95% CI 0.76-0.91) from 11 studies. This analysis confirms the association between intake of vegetables and, to a lesser extent, fruits and breast cancer risk from published sources. Increasing vegetable consumption might reduce the risk of breast cancer.