Salty diet raises men’s stomach cancer risk

The risk of developing stomach cancer may be doubled in men by the consumption of a diet high in salt, Japanese clinicians suggest. Scientists from the National Cancer Center Research Institute in Kashiwa studied almost 40,000 middle-aged people for 11 years to determine the association between the occurrence of stomach cancer and the participants’ dietary, drinking, and smoking habits.

The risk of developing stomach cancer may be doubled in men by the consumption of a diet high in salt, Japanese clinicians suggest.Scientists from the National Cancer Center Research Institute in Kashiwa studied almost 40,000 middle-aged people for 11 years to determine the association between the occurrence of stomach cancer and the participants’ dietary, drinking, and smoking habits. The team, led by Shoichiro Tsugane, recruited 18,684 men and 20,381 women from four districts in Japan – Iwate, Akita, Nagano and Okinawa – to the study in 1990. The participants, aged between 40 and 59 years, completed questionnaires on their dietary habits over the study period. Overall, 358 cases of stomach cancer were reported in male participants, and 128 cases among the female volunteers. The researchers, writing in the latest edition of the British Journal of Cancer, found that men with the lowest quintile of salt intake had a one in 1000 risk of developing stomach cancer, while those with the highest quintile had a risk of one in 500 risk of the disease. The likelihood of developing stomach cancer was also increased to a lesser extent in women who ate high levels of salt in their diet, Indeed, women with the lowest quintile of salt intake had a one in 2000 chance of a future diagnosis of stomach cancer, increasing to one in 1300 among women in the highest bracket for salt consumption. Tsugane et al say: ” Although stratification by study area, with varied salt intake and gastric cancer incidence, attenuated the observed clear associations with salt and salted foods, the frequency categories of highly salted foods such as salted fish roe and salted fish preserves were strongly associated with the risk in both sexes.” They conclude: “Restriction of salt and salted food intake is a practical strategy to prevent gastric cancer in areas with high risk.” (Source Br J Cancer 2004; 90: 128-134)