The symptoms of reflux disease can come and go but generally persist, which means that many patients frequently seek medical attention and often undergo repeated gastroscopies to detect mucosal lesions or prodromal cancer.
The present study is based on national health data registries in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, and included over 285,000 individuals with reflux disease and no gastroscopic evidence of esophagitis. The patients were followed for up to 31 years and the researchers registered all cases of esophageal cancer.
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The cancer risk was then compared with that for individuals from the general population matched by age and sex and at the same period in the three countries. No increased risk of esophageal cancer was observed in patients with reflux disease and a normal mucus membrane.
By way of comparison, the researchers also analysed the cancer risk in over 200,000 individuals with reflux disease and esophagitis. These people were at a clearly increased relative risk of developing esophageal cancer.
“We now intend to examine what factors other than esophagitis can be linked to tumor growth in people with reflux disease,” says the study’s last author Jesper Lagergren, professor of surgery at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, and consultant surgeon at Karolinska University Hospital.
Source: Eurekalert
