Dietary and supplementary vitamin C intake and the risk of lung cancer: A meta‑analysis of cohort studies

Previous cohort studies reported inconsistent findings regarding the association between dietary or supplementary vitamin C intake and lung cancer risk. These associations were investigated by conducting a meta‑analysis of cohort studies. The PubMed and EMBASE databases were utilized, using keywords related to the topic from inception to April 15, 2022. Pooled effect sizes, such as relative risk (RR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were calculated using a random‑effects model. A total of 20 cohort studies from 13 articles were included in the final analysis. In a meta‑analysis of all studies, there was no significant association between dietary or supplementary vitamin C intake and lung cancer risk (RR/HR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.80‑1.01; I²=56.4%; n=20). In the subgroup meta‑analysis by the source of vitamin C, dietary vitamin C intake decreased the risk of lung cancer (RR/HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.73‑0.92; I²=42.5%; n=14), whereas there was no association between supplementary vitamin C intake and lung cancer risk (RR/HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.84‑1.22; n=4). The present meta‑analysis of cohort studies found that dietary vitamin C intake is beneficial for preventing lung cancer, whereas its supplementary intake does not have a beneficial effect.