Red Meat, Poultry, and Fish Consumption and the Risk of Liver Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study of 0.5 Million Chinese Adults

Epidemiological evidence on meat consumption and liver cancer risk is limited and inconclusive; moreover, no prospective study has been conducted to investigate this association in China. Hence, we performed this study to examine the association of red meat, poultry, and fish consumption with the risk of liver cancer in a Chinese population.

A total of 510,048 Chinese adults of ages 30 to 79 years were included and were followed up through December 31, 2016. Red meat, poultry, and fish consumption was evaluated using an interviewer-administered laptop-based questionnaire. HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for liver cancer incidence were calculated using Cox regression.

Over a mean follow-up of 9.94 years, 1,906 liver cancer cases were observed. Each 50 g/day increase in red meat (HR 0.72; 95% CI, 0.49–1.05), poultry (HR 0.93; 95% CI, 0.83–1.03), and fish (HR 0.95; 95% CI, 0.85–1.05) consumption was not associated with the risk of liver cancer in the whole study population; however, subgroup analysis revealed an inverse association with poultry consumption in rural residents but not in urban residents (P_interaction = 0.046). The initial associations did not change materially in a series of sensitivity analyses.

Red meat and fish consumption is not associated with the risk of liver cancer in this Chinese population. The inverse association with poultry consumption in Chinese rural residents should be interpreted with caution.

This is the first prospective study examining the association between meat consumption and the risk of liver cancer in the Chinese population.