ONCOmmunity

Tea consumption and gastric cancer: a pooled analysis from the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project consortium.

By: Georgia Martimianaki, Gianfranco Alicandro, Claudio Pelucchi, Rossella Bonzi, Matteo Rota, Jinfu Hu, Kenneth C Johnson, Charles S Rabkin, Linda M Liao, Rashmi Sinha, Zuo-Feng Zhang, Michela Dalmartello, Nuno Lunet, Samantha Morais, Domenico Palli, Monica Ferraroni, Guo-Pei Yu, Shoichiro Tsugane, Akihisa Hidaka, Maria Paula Curado, Emmanuel Dias-Neto, David Zaridze, Dmitry Maximovitch, Jesus Vioque, Manoli Garcia de la Hera, Lizbeth López-Carrillo, Raúl Ulises Hernández-Ramírez, Gerson Shigueaki Hamada, Mary H Ward, Lina Mu, Reza Malekzadeh, Farhad Pourfarzi, Antonia Trichopoulou, Anna Karakatsani, Robert C Kurtz, Areti Lagiou, Pagona Lagiou, Stefania Boccia, Paolo Boffetta, M Constanza Camargo, Eva Negri, Carlo La Vecchia

Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Branch of Medical Statistics, Biometry and Epidemiology "G.A. Maccacaro", University of Milan, Milan, Italy. georgia.martimianaki@unimi.it.
2021-11-17; doi: 10.1038/s41416-022-01856-w

Abstract

Background

Evidence from epidemiological studies on the role of tea drinking in gastric cancer risk remains inconsistent. We aimed to investigate and quantify the relationship between tea consumption and gastric cancer in the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project consortium.

Methods

A total of 9438 cases and 20,451 controls from 22 studies worldwide were included. Odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of gastric cancer for regular versus non-regular tea drinkers were estimated by one and two-stage modelling analyses, including terms for sex, age and the main recognised risk factors for gastric cancer.

Results

Compared to non-regular drinkers, the estimated adjusted pooled OR for regular tea drinkers was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.85-0.97). When the amount of tea consumed was considered, the OR for consumption of 1-2 cups/day was 1.01 (95% CI: 0.94-1.09) and for >3 cups/day was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.80-1.03). Stronger inverse associations emerged among regular drinkers in China and Japan (OR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.49-0.91) where green tea is consumed, in subjects with H. pylori infection (OR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.58-0.80), and for gastric cardia cancer (OR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.49-0.84).

Conclusion

Our results indicate a weak inverse association between tea consumption and gastric cancer.