Association between dietary carbohydrate intake, glycemic index and glycemic load, and risk of gastric cancer

Purpose: The association between dietary carbohydrate intake, glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL), and risk of gastric cancer (GC) has been investigated by many studies. However, the results of these studies were controversial. The aim of our study was to systematically assess this issue.

Methods: PUBMED and EMBASE were searched up to March 2015, and either a fixed- or a random-effects model was adopted to estimate overall relative risks (RRs). Dose-response, meta-regression, subgroup, and publication bias analyses were applied.

Results: Twenty-six studies with approximately 540,000 participants were finally included in this meta-analysis. High level of dietary carbohydrate intake (pooled RR 1.17, 95 % CI 0.91-1.50), GI (pooled RR 1.17, 95 % CI 0.80-1.69), and GL (pooled RR 1.06, 95 % CI 0.90-1.26) were all nonsignificantly associated with incidence of GC. In addition, no significant dose-response relationship was observed between carbohydrate intake, GI and GL, and the risk of GC. However, further subgroup analyses based on gender and geographic region suggested a significant association between higher carbohydrate intake (pooled RR 1.52, 95 % CI 1.10-2.08), GL (pooled RR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.04-1.92), and GC risk in males subgroup, and between higher carbohydrate intake (pooled RR 1.69, 95 % CI 1.36-2.09) and GC risk in Asian studies.

Conclusions: No significant association was found between dietary carbohydrate intake, GI and GL, and risk of GC. However, significantly positive association was observed in the males subgroup and Asian studies.