Abstract 636: Salted food intake and risk of gastric cancer: A pooled analysis of Korean cohorts and a global meta-analysis
Authors: Yoo Jin Young , Cho Hyun Jeong , Moon Sungji , Kim Inah , Ko Kwang-Pil , Park Sue Kyung , Lee Jung Eun 
Published: August 2019

Backgrounds: Gastric cancer, the fifth most common cancer, is the third most common cause of death from cancer with more than half of the cases occurring in Eastern Asia. The World Cancer Research Fund proposed “foods preserved by salting” as probable risk factors of gastric cancer, as evidenced from epidemiological studies addressing high salt foods and gastric cancer.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of Korean cohorts, The Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KoGES) and Korean Multi-center Cancer Cohort Study (KMCC) to investigate the association between salted food intake and gastric cancer mortality among Korean population. We used cox proportional hazard models adjusted for potential confounding factors. We also reviewed global observational studies published until October 2018 and conducted a dose-response and a categorical meta-analysis. We used either a random effect model or a fixed effect model depending on the heterogeneity of the studies. We further categorized salted food into salted vegetable, fish, and soup to examine the relative risk (RR) of gastric cancer for specific salted foods.

Results: The pooled RRs (95% confidence intervals, CIs) of gastric cancer among KoGES and KMCC were 0.99 (0.95-1.04) per 50g increase in salted food intake and 0.98(0.94-1.03), 1.79(1.05-3.06), 1.17(0.95-1.43) per 50g increase in intake of salted vegetable, fish, and soup, respectively. The pooled RR (95% CI) of gastric cancer, compared with the lowest category of salted food intake, was 0.95(0.63-1.27) for the highest category of intake. For the dose-response meta-analysis, we included 35 studies (15 cohort and 20 case-control), and the combined global RRs (95% CIs) of gastric cancer per 50g increase in intake were 1.07 (1.02-1.12) for salted food and 1.11(1.03-1.20), 2.10(1.27-3.46), 1.00(0.99-1.01) for salted vegetable, fish, and soup, respectively. When we analyzed prospective studies only, the RRs (95% CIs) per 50g increase in intake were 1.02(0.99-1.06) for salted food and 1.05(0.98-1.13), 1.26(1.01-1.59), 1.00(0.99-1.01) for salted vegetable, fish, and soup, respectively. For the categorical meta-analysis, 69 studies (23 cohort and 46 case-control) were included; the combined RRs (95% CIs) of the highest intake category, compared to the lowest intake category, were 1.19(1.11-1.27), 1.30(1.19-1.40), 1.06(0.95-1.16), and 1.03(0.92-1.14) for salted food, vegetable, fish, and soup, respectively.

Conclusions: The pooled analysis showed a statistically significant association between risk of gastric cancer and salted fish intake among Korean population. The global meta-analyses also showed a significant association between intake of salted food and risk of gastric cancer.

Acknowledgements: This study was funded by the Korean Foundation for Cancer Research (Grant Number. CB-2017-A-2)

Citation Format: Jin Young Yoo, Hyun Jeong Cho, Sungji Moon, Inah Kim, Kwang-Pil Ko, Sue Kyung Park, Jung Eun Lee. Salted food intake and risk of gastric cancer: A pooled analysis of Korean cohorts and a global meta-analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 636.