Antioxidant Vitamins and Risk of Gastric Cancer: A Case-Control Study in Portugal

Abstract

We quantified the effect of antioxidant vitamins in gastric cancer risk, taking into account Helicobacter pylori seropositivity and overall fruit and vegetable intake. Incident cases were identified in two large hospitals in Porto, Portugal, and controls were randomly sampled among city dwellers. Food intake was assessed with a previously validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire. A commercially available chromatographic immunoassay was used for the detection of immunoglobulin G antibodies. Complete questionnaire information and serum samples were available for 233 cases and 311 controls. Compared with subjects in the lowest tertile of dietary intake, the odds ratios (ORs) for those in the highest were 0.85 (95% confidence interval, CI = 0.45-1.60) for vitamin C, 1.04 (95% CI = 0.60-1.80) for vitamin E, and 1.33 (95% CI = 0.77-2.30) for provitamin A carotenoids after further adjusting for fruit and vegetable consumption. Fruit and vegetables remained an independent protective factor (OR = 0.45; 95% CI = 0.23-0.89) after further adjustment for the intake of antioxidant vitamins. H. pylori status had no significant interaction with dietary items. Factors other than H. pylori infection and intake of vitamin C and provitamin A carotenoids seem to account for the inverse association between fruit and vegetable consumption and gastric cancer.

Recent patterns in gastric cancer: A global overview

“…Primary prevention of stomach cancer by dietary means is feasible by encouraging high-risk populations to decrease consumption of cured meats and salt preserved foods, and increase the consumption of vegetables and fruit. [42][43][44][45][46][47] Prevention may also be feasible through eradication of H. pylori infection, particularly in childhood and adolescence.…”

Dietary micronutrients and gastric cancer: hospital based study

“…Previous case control studies did not observe statistically significant association between dietary vitamin E intake and gastric cancer [16,19,[30][31][32][33] or observed inverse association [4,17,18,[34][35][36].…”

Changes in fat-soluble vitamin levels after gastrectomy for gastric cancer

“…High intakes of vitamin E exhibited highly significant inverse associations with gastric cancer among Helicobacter pylori-infected subjects compared with noninfected individuals [31]. Vitamin E reduced the risk of gastric cancer [28]. Vitamin E and selected carotenoid intake decreased the gastric cancer risk [32].…”

“…Patients who used vitamin A-containing supplements had a lower risk of gastric cancer than nonusers of vitamin A-containing supplements. Vitamin A was strongly associated with the risk of gastric cancer, particular with the intestinal type [26][27][28]. There were also reports that the intake of vitamin E was not associated with gastric carcinoma [26,27].…”

“…[25][26][27][28]32] No report No report Impaired night vision follicular hyperkeratosis [37] Total gastrectomy [37,38] D No [32][33][34] Possibly yes [35] No report No report No operative methods related to vitamin deficiency [43] E Yes [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] No report No report Peripheral neuropathy limb or truncal ataxia [39,40,50] Total gastrectomy without food passage through the duodenum [39,40] K No report No report No report No report No report…”