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Gastroesophageal reflux disease increases the risk of cancer
30/Sep/2006: A new study reported in the American Journal of Medicine, suggests that people suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are at a higher risk of developing laryngeal cancer.
The authors of new study said that earlier studies, which tried to link the acid-reflux condition to laryngeal cancer were not comprehensive, due to the shortcomings in their methodology.
Researchers involved in this study compared a group 96 men and women suffering from laryngeal cancer, with another group of adults without this disease, who were matched to the patients by age, gender and ethnicity – factors that determine the risk of developing laryngeal cancer.
The study showed that people with GERD were twice as likely to develop laryngeal cancer when compared to those without GERD. This risk of developing laryngeal cancer was independent of smoking, which is considered to be a major contributor of cancer in humans. Smokers in the study had a much higher risk of developing laryngeal cancer when compared to non-smokers.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease occurs when the bottom of the oesophagus fails to close properly allowing acids from the digestive tract to enter the oesophagus. GERD is already linked to a disorder called Barrett’s oesophagus, which can later turn in to oesophageal cancer.
Dr. Michael Vaezi, a gastroenterologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and the study’s lead author said that definitive studies that could clearly establish the link between GERD and laryngeal cancer are yet to come.
But the findings of this study suggest that there is a growing evidence of the link between GERD and laryngeal cancer. This study also revealed that laryngeal cancer patients who took acid-suppressing medication had lower odds of recurrence of laryngeal cancer, which shows that GERD not only contributes to initial development of laryngeal cancer but also to its recurrence.
K Siva
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