Abstract:Objective To explore the association between protein/carbohydrate intake and the risk of colorectal cancer. To explore the effects of sex and tumor site on the risk of colorectal cancer. Methods We conducted a meta-analysis of studies published in the database of pubmed, embase and cochrane library between January 1, 1991 and December 31, 2015 to assess the association between protein/carbohydrate consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer via Stata 12.0. Results A total of 22 studies and 16,012 cases were included in the meta-analysis. The summary relative risk (RR) indicated no significant association between protein (■ : 1.03, 95%CI : 0.85, 1.25) and carbohydrate (■ : 1.15, 95%CI: 0.99, 1.33) intake and the risk of colorectal cancer. A significant positive association with the risk of colorectal cancer was observed in the case-control stdies of carbohydrate intake (■ : 1.35, 95%CI: 1.07, 1.69) and in male subgroup of carbohydrate intake (■ : 1.21, 95%CI: 1.01, 1.45). However, publication bias was evident with either Egger's test (P = 0.001) or Begg's test (P = 0.000) in studies of carbohydrate. Conclusions There is not enough evidence to confirm the association between protein/carbohydrate intake and the risk of colorectal cancer in our research. Further studies, especially, randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled studies, should be performed to explore the new views mentioned in our article.