Dose-response relation between serum total cholesterol levels and overall cancer risk: evidence from 12 prospective studies involving 1,926,275 participants

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to clarify the association between serum total cholesterol (TC) levels and overall cancer risk. Study-specific relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were pooled using a random-effects model, and dose–response relation was also evaluated. Twelve prospective studies were identified with a total of 1,926,275 participants and 13,1676 cases. High levels of serum TC showed an inverse association with overall cancer risk (RR for the highest versus the lowest category: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.83\u2009∼\u20090.90; I2\u2009=\u200952.5%). A linear dose-response relation between serum TC levels and overall cancer risk was found (p\u2009=\u2009.004 for Wald test; I2\u2009=\u200949.6%), and the pooled RR was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.89\u2009∼\u20090.94) for 3\u2009mmol/L, 0.86 (95% CI: 0.81\u2009∼\u20090.90) for 5\u2009mmol/L, 0.80 (95% CI: 0.74\u2009∼\u20090.87) for 7\u2009mmol/L. Our dose-response meta-analysis of 12 prospective studies indicated that higher serum TC levels were significantly associated with reduced cancer risk.