Case‐control study on stomach cancer in Germany

Abstract

A multicentric hospital-based case-control study was simultaneously performed in a high-risk and a low-risk area for stomach cancer in Germany, 143 patients with incident stomach cancer and 579 controls completing a retrospective interview about life style aspects. Periods of non-centralized water supply or well water as the only source compared to life-long central water supply, and preservation of meat by smoking it with spruce compared to no home smoking of meat, were significantly associated with an increased stomach cancer risk. use of a refrigerator at home for 30 and more years compared to 24 years or less showed an inverse relationship, whereas salt intake estimated by questionnaire showed no relationship to stomach cancer risk. Tobacco smoking was negatively associated with risk for current smokers of cigarettes compared to non-smokers but was presumably not causally related. After adjustment for other food constituents, only increased vitamin C consumption showed an inverse relation to risk. For food groups, increased consumption of fruit, citrus fruit, cheese and whole-meal bread were associated with decreased risk. A similar effect was also seen for increased consumption of raw vegetables. Total vegetable consumption was not particularly associated with risk. Increased consumption of processed meat and of beer showed a positive association with risk whereas increased wine and liquor consumption showed a significant negative association. The association of alcoholic beverages with stomach cancer risk may reflect a particular life style rather than being causally related to risk.

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“…Duration of refrigerator use or freezer use was not associated with stomach cancer risk in the Netherlands Cohort Study, in contrast with the results of casecontrol studies performed in Europe or the USA, which rather consistently reported a decreased stomach cancer risk with long-term use of a refrigerator [2,5,9,16,18,38,54]. Three of the case-control studies did not find an association [15,44,47] and no other cohort study reported on this association.…”

“…Overall, in the majority of case-control studies, positive associations were observed for (total) salt or sodium intake [2,3,33,34], consumption of salted fish, salted meat, pickles and soup [5,7,16,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40], adding salt to food at dinner [5,9,41], preference of salty foods [4,5,11,40,42]. The relative risks reported ranged from 1.5 to 6.7 for various measures of salt intake [14].…”

“…The relative risks reported ranged from 1.5 to 6.7 for various measures of salt intake [14]. In several other case-control studies no association was reported for (total) salt or sodium intake [43][44][45], salted foods [11,13,43,46], for use of table salt [10,47] or salt added to food [8,13,15,16,47], preference of foods with a salty taste [8,12,13,15].…”

“…Increased risks have also been found for a high consumption of meat products (e.g., [15][16][17]). Meat products like bacon, sausage, ham, salami often contain, besides much salt, also nitrite, nitrosamines, and may contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (in smoked meats) or heterocyclic amines (in cooked foods) [17].…”

Heme iron, zinc and upper digestive tract cancer: The Iowa Women's Health Study

“…Many case-control studies of gastric or esophageal cancer have previously found inverse associations with vegetable and fruit consumption, [27][28][29] but the evidence from prospective cohort studies has been inconsistent. [30][31][32] In our prospective study, neither vegetable nor fruit consumption, nor intake of antioxidant vitamins usually contained in vegetables and fruit, was associated with the risk of upper digestive tract cancer.…”