The role of Mediterranean diet in cancer incidence and mortality in the older adults

The magnitude of benefit of Mediterranean diet in cancer prevention and mortality in older adults is still unclear, therefore we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. Outcomes considered were cancer incidence and cancer mortality. In studies evaluating cancer incidence as a time-to-event endpoint and adherence as quantiles, HR was 0.885 (95% CI 0.773–1.013, I² = 44%). Including ORs, exploratory pooled effect size was 0.876 (0.794–0.966, I² = 34%), consistently with results of studies evaluating ORs for adherence as one-point increase (OR 0.744, 0.570–0.972, I² = 90%). No clear benefit was observed on cancer mortality, with pooled HR of 0.935 (0.800–1.093, I² = 0%). Significant differences were observed for ORs according to cancer type but not between medium and high adherence for both outcomes. Certainty of evidence was low. Our findings suggest that MD could play a protective role in cancer incidence in advanced age, but no clear effect on cancer mortality was observed.