Dietary legume consumption reduces risk of colorectal cancer: evidence from a meta-analysis of cohort studies

Previous epidemiological studies on the relation between dietary legume consumption and risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) remain controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis based on prospective cohort studies to investigate the association between dietary legume consumption and risk of CRC. Fourteen cohort studies were finally included, containing a total of 1,903,459 participants and 12,261 cases who contributed 11,628,960 person-years. We found that higher legume consumption was associated with a decreased risk of CRC (RR, relative risk = 0.91; 95% CI, confidence interval = 0.84-0.98). Subgroup analyses suggested that higher legume consumption was inversely associated with CRC risk in Asian (RR = 0.82; 95% CI = 0.74-0.91) and soybean intake was associated with a decreased risk of CRC (RR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.73-0.99). Findings from our meta-analysis supported an association between higher intake of legume and a reduced risk of CRC. Further studies controlled for appropriate confounders are warranted to validate the associations.