Breast cancer remains the most prevalent malignancy among women worldwide, and experimental tumor models are essential for evaluating new therapeutic approaches before clinical application. The Walker-256 carcinoma model exhibits biological behavior comparable to human carcinoma and allows short-term assessment of tumor progression. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of dietary supplementation on Walker-256 tumor growth. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and searched the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases without time restrictions. The meta-analysis included clustering based on the type of supplementation received, comparing treatment groups with control groups. Twenty-one studies were included, analyzing 18 different supplements, and 12 studies were considered for quantitative synthesis. The overall effect indicated a significant reduction in tumor growth with supplementation (SMD = 3.286; 95% CI: 2.546–4.027; p < 0.001), despite high heterogeneity (I2 = 98.6%). Oils had the greatest impact, particularly fish oil (SMD = 7.368; 95% CI: 3.606–11.131) and shark liver oil (SMD = 5.781; 95% CI: 3.655–7.907), followed by amino acids and linoleic acid-rich supplements. We conclude that nutritional supplementation may have the potential to reduce tumor growth in Walker-256 models.
Ribeiro-Silva et al. (Wed,) studied this question.