The Link Between Nonerosive Gastroesophageal Reflux and Esophageal Cancer

Nonerosive gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) was not associated with an increase in the likelihood of esophageal cancer, a recent study published in The BMJ found.

“Nonerosive GERD was defined by an absence of esophagitis and any other esophageal diagnosis at endoscopy,” the paper read. “Erosive GERD was examined for comparison reasons and was defined by the presence of esophagitis at endoscopy.”

The team pulled data on 486,556 patients who had undergone endoscopy from hospitals and specialized outpatient health care in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden between 1987 and 2019. Of these, 285,811 adults had nonerosive GERD and 200,745 had erosive GERD.

The main outcome was to monitor the incidence rate of esophageal adenocarcinoma.

From the nonerosive GERD cohort, 228 patients developed esophageal adenocarcinomas during 2,081,051 person-years of follow-up. The incidence rate was 11.0/100,000 person-years, similar to the general population (IR 1.04; 95% CI, 0.91 to 1.18)

The researchers noted that with longer follow-up, there was no corresponding increase in incidence rate.

Erosive GERD, on the other hand, was found to be associated with a nearly tripled risk of developing esophageal cancer, with the likelihood increasing over time, the researchers added.

Reference:
Holmberg D, Santoni G, Kauppila JH et al. Non-erosive gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma in three Nordic countries: population based cohort study. BMJ. 2023; 382 :e076017. DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2023-076017