PPIS increasing chance of Gastric Cancer - I have been on PP1 for 2 years

forestlover

http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2017/09/18/gutjnl-2017-314605

Suffer from Acid Reflux and was diagnosed with gastritis last year via endoscope, I am only 26years old. Was told to keep taking PPIS. Read this this morning and I'm starting to freak out. I continued taking the PPIS (20mg) a day because of the fear of cancer (esophagus & throat) and because I still get the burning knawing feeling in my stomach from the gastritis.

I feel so pissed at the GI doctor, my own GP and myself.

forestlover

I suppose also to say I have suffered with heart burn (reflux coming up my throat and burning in chest) since I was a child so when I started taking PPIS and was so happy with the relief they gave me. I do not have H. pylori .

echo beach

PPIs do NOT cause gastric cancer. No one factor causes any cancer. This article suggests that they increase the risk, which is a different thing altogether. It looks at a group of people in Hong Kong who had H. pilori, so it isn’t that relevant to your situation.
Look at the figures. 153 people developed cancer out of over 63,000 and not all of them were taking PPIs. That is less than a quarter of 1%. Hardly a risk worth freaking out over. Risk isn’t easy to understand but it has to be kept in proportion.

You need to talk to your doctor. Every medicine has risks and benefits. Balancing them is something that has to be done on an individual basis, taking into account all the factors, not just one study.

forestlover

apologies, have edited the title. The guardian article mentions participants that did not have h.pylori https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/31/acid-reflux-drug-linked-to-more-than-doubled-risk-of-stomach-cancer-study

Kurtosis

The study only included people who had been infected with H. pylori and who subjects who had received treatment for this. It doesn't provide any information for patients taking PPIs who have not had H. pylori. Also, it's important to consider that this wasn't an experiment/trial, it was following people in the real world. This means that the people who were prescribed PPIs were likely different to the people not prescribed PPIs, and although the researchers accounted for some of these differences, there may be others which have an influence on the risk of gastric cancer.

As echo beach says, there are benefits and risks to all medications and it's a matter of a patient with their doctor weighing those up to decide if taking a medication would do them more good than harm. For PPIs, like any medication, there is a list of potential risks included in the patient information leaflet, in some cases with more or less strong evidence to back them up. It is worth discussing these with your doctor along with the alternative medications/strategies that are available.

echo beach

The NHS have a very useful service called Behind the Headlines which looks at reports of medical research in the British media and translates the findings from often sensational headlines to easy to understand explanations.
https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/acid-reflux-drugs-linked-increased-stomach-cancer-risk/

It explains that although a doubling of risk sounds very serious it is the doubling of a very low risk so
"it's important to remember that the overall risk of stomach cancer is still very low."
One of the main risk factors for all cancers is age, the older you are the more likely you are to get cancer so the risk for a young person is lower again.

The take-away advice is:

But PPIs, like most drugs, do have side effects. They're not usually intended to be taken long term.
If you're taking them regularly, it may be worth discussing with your doctor whether you still need to. There could be alternative treatments that would be of more benefit.

Wesser

The study was only released a few days ago so you can't really blame yourself your gi doctor or your GP... none of you could possibly be aware if this before now......

goat2

I guess a person would have to be taking these ppi,s long term for this to happen, if indeed they are the cause of bringing on cancer

Aspadeaspade

OP I used to suffer from almost constant acid reflux/ heartburn, for years and can thankfully say I no longer do since changing my diet. There is no doubt about it, unless you have some underlying condition that causes it, I am a total believer that you can get rid of it altogether by cutting down on processed foods, acidic foods, wheat and dairy. Everything in moderation. Also if you smoke or drink just to be aware that these probably don't help either. Good luck OP

madmaggie

Hi OP, I had gastritis a couple of years ago. Prescribed a PPI, my gp said to take it for no more than six months. I went to a dietician who gave me loads of info on what types of food to avoid, also to keep a food diary to identify trigger foods. Stress, as usual, can be a big factor.