Objectives: In the context of supplementary antioxidants having no anticancer effect, it is important to update the meta-analysis to evaluate whether there is an association between intake of citrus fruit and gastric cancer risk.

Methods: The list of articles to be searched was established using citation discovery tools provided by PubMed and Scopus. The effect size of each article to be used in meta-analysis was calculated using the interval-collapse method. Summary effect size (sES) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained by conducting this meta-analysis. Random effect dose-response meta-regression (DRMR) was performed to investigate the dose-response relationship.

Results: A total of five cohort studies were selected. The result was 13% reduction of gastric cancer according to the intake of citrus fruit (sES, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.76 to 0.99; I-squared=69.6%). In subgroup analysis, it was found that the intake of citrus fruit inhibited cardia gastric cancer (CGC) (sES, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.81; I-squared=46.1%) and as a result of DRMR, 100 g of citrus fruit intake per day inhibits CGC by 40% (relative risk, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.83).

Conclusions: It is suggested that the intake of citrus fruit inhibits the development of CGC. This conclusion can be used as a primary prevention measure in the future when the incidence of CGC may be on the rise.