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Whether chronic acid suppression increases risk for cancer of the stomach, cardia, or esophagus is controversial. To determine the potential effect of acid suppression with histamine-2–receptor antagonists or proton-pump inhibitors on cancer risk, investigators in the U.K. performed a nested case-control study. A common register (general practitioners research database) was used to identify patients (age range, 40–84) who had developed gastric or esophageal cancers from 1994 through 2001 (4,340,207 patient-years of follow-up).
In total, 287 cases of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, 195 gastric cardia adenocarcinomas, and 327 noncardia gastric cancers were found; 10,000 patient records were chosen randomly as controls. All records were review…