Is There a Relationship Between Dairy Consumption and Gastric Cancer?

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

In a meta analysis from the departments of gastroenterology in both the Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, China, and the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, China, researchers look for a link between an individual’s consumption of dairy products and their risk of gastric cancer.

The researchers looked at the PubMed and Web of Science databases for studies that researched dairy product consumption and gastric cancer risk that had been published between October 1980 and September 2013. One member of the research team analyzed the data and interpreted the study quality of each trial. Depending on the heterogeneity results, the researchers then used either the fixed effects model or the random effects model to summarize the relative risks and 95% confidence intervals.

The researchers then went further to assess subgroups that related to the design of each study, the region the research was being conducted in, gender, and adjustments for confounding factors (like smoking or drinking). The researchers identified 39 relevant studies that had the potential to be included in their meta-analysis, which were comprised of 10 cohort studies and 29 case-control studies.

Their analysis revealed a nonsignificant relationship between the an individual’s intake of dairy products and their risk of gastric cancer, but the researchers believe that these results should be verified in larger prospective studies.