Antacids are used to treat heartburn and their use serves as a proxy indicator of gastroesophageal reflux disease. We tested the association between self‐reported antacid use and risk of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (N=240) in a prospective cohort study using Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) adjusted for potential confounders. We also estimate the risks for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and esophageal and gastric cardia adenocarcinomas for comparison. Antacid use showed significant associations with risk of esophageal and gastric cardia adenocarcinomas, 2.34 (1.79–3.06) and 1.45 (1.06–1.98) respectively, but not esophageal squamous cell carcinoma 0.99 (0.65–1.49). For laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma we found significantly increased risk 1.32 (1.01–1.72). In sex and smoking‐status stratified models for the larynx, we saw a stronger association in men that had never smoked tobacco, 13.52 (2.89–63.22), compared to ever smokers, 1.20 (0.89–1.63). The small number of women with larynx cancer precluded stratified models. Our study suggests that gastroesophageal reflux may increase the risk of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):A131.

Copyright © January 7, 2010, American Association for Cancer Research
2010