A new study has been published claimingthat proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), a drug commonly used to treat acid reflux, is linked to a more than doubled risk of developing stomach cancer.
The drug is effective as it reduces the amount of acid made by the stomach which is useful to patients who need to treat acid reflux and stomach ulcers. However, now there are rising doubts about its safety, despite it being prescribed to over 50 million people in the UK alone. There had been previous fears that there were links to side-effects and an increased risk of death, but this is the first conclusive test to prove so.
Researchers now claim that there is 2.4 times higher chance of being diagnosed with stomach cancer when you use PPI regularly on a long term basis, than those who don’t. Daily use was also proven to be four times (4.55) more lethal than weekly use. Then, the use of it for a year increased chances by five times, and then eight times after three to four years.
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The 12 year study was conducted by the University of Hong Kong and University College London with the most shocking element being that the chances of stomach cancer were still increased whether the bacteria Helicobacter pylori was present or not, which was suspected to increase the illnesses development. Interestingly, an alternative treatment, H2 blockers, had no impact on the effect of stomach cancer.
Overall doctors do not believe this to be damning enough for the removal of PPI, but instead issued the statement that doctors should “exercise caution when prescribing long-term PPIs”. As a response to this advice, Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, believed that the reasoning behind this is that the patients who use PPI tend ‘to be sicker in a variety of ways than those for whom they are not prescribed’.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.