Long term use of antacids doubles risk of developing Stomach Cancer

Prolonged use of drugs which are commonly used for treating acid reflux problems like heartburn and ulcers can double the risk of developing stomach cancer.

If antacids are more frequently used it is associated with greater risk and the daily use of ulcer drugs quadruples the risk of getting stomach cancer compared to weekly use.

Using of proton pump inhibitors increases the risk which rises with dose and duration of the treatment because of the elimination of Helicobater pylori, the bacteria which indirectly involves in the development of stomach cancer.

Elimination of Helicobater pylori from the gut significantly reduces a person’s risk of developing stomach cancer.

Procedure Diagnosis (Representative Image)

But, a substantial proportion of patients who were successfully treated from ulcers may also develop the cancer disease and is becoming the leading cause of stomach cancer death in the world.

In previous research it was found that an association exists between the use of PPIs and increased stomach cancer risk, nut could not found out the potential role of H pylori alone and is being investigated thoroughly.

A study was published in the journal Gut which compared the use of PPIs with histamine H2 receptor anatgosists (H2 blockers) which bring down the acid production in the stomach.

The study was done in 63,397 adults who were treated with triple therapy which is a combination of PPI and two antibiotics to kill H pylori for seven days.

They were monitored subsequently until they developed stomach cancer or died or the study ended whatever happened first. The average monitoring period lasted for 7 and half years.

During the monitoring period, five percent of the people around 3,271 took PPIs for about three years and 21,729 people took H2 blockers.

It was found that in total, 153 people which accounted for 0.24% developed stomach cancer after taking triple therapy. Nobody was tested positive of H pylori at that time but they all had long standing gastritis.

But if PPIs are taken, it was associated with more than double risk of developing stomach cancer while taking H2 blockers was not associated with stomach cancer risk.

The average time between triple therapy and stomach cancer development is less than five years.

So it revealed that more usage of antacids is associated with greater risk of developing stomach cancer compared to weekly usage.

If PPIs are used for treating stomach acids, you will be at a higher risk to develop cancer and the risk rises five times more after one year, more than six time fold after two years and eight-fold after three or more years.

The researchers said that: “This is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and PPIs are generally considered safe”.

But the recent research has proved that long term usage of drugs can show many unwanted effects like pneumonia, heart attack and bone fracture.

PPIs stimulate the gastrin production, which is a powerful growth factor.