The Study
Salt intake and gastric cancer: a pooled analysis within the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project
This study looks at patterns from many smaller studies about salt and stomach cancer. It can show that people who eat more salt tend to have more stomach cancer, but it can't prove salt actually causes cancer because it just observes what people already do.
Analysis score
Maximum 100 for a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Where the score came from
This study looked at how eating salty foods affects stomach cancer risk.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 533 / 100
Quality score
The highest quality evidence. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that pool randomized controlled trials, giving the most reliable summary of experimental evidence.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes, eating more salty foods may increase stomach cancer risk.
- 2People who like salty taste had 59% higher risk, always using table salt had 33% higher risk, and eating lots of salt-preserved foods had 24% higher risk.
- 3Total salt intake didn't show a clear link.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Cancer Causes & Control
Year
2022
Authors
Samantha Morais, A. Costa, G. Albuquerque, Natália Araújo, C. Pelucchi, C. Rabkin, L. Liao, R. Sinha, Zuo‐Feng Zhang, Jinfu Hu, K. Johnson, D. Palli, M. Ferraroni, Rossella Bonzi, Guo-Pei Yu, L. López-Carrillo, R. Malekzadeh, S. Tsugane, A. Hidaka, G. S. Hamada, D. Zaridze, Dmitry Maximovitch, J. Vioque, M. G. de la Hera, V. Moreno, M. Vanaclocha-Espí, M. Ward, M. Pakseresht, R. Hernández-Ramírez, M. López-Cervantes, F. Pourfarzi, L. Mu, R. Kurtz, S. Boccia, R. Pastorino, A. Lagiou, P. Lagiou, P. Boffetta, M. C. Camargo, M. Curado, E. Negri, C. la Vecchia, N. Lunet
Related Content
Claims (5)
Eating a lot of salty preserved foods can hurt your stomach lining and cause long-term swelling, making you more likely to get stomach cancer after many years.
People who like salty foods more than others are 59% more likely to get stomach cancer, according to a big review of 25 studies.
People who always add salt to their food might have a one-third higher chance of getting stomach cancer than those who never do.
Eating a lot of salty preserved foods might raise your chances of getting stomach cancer by about one-quarter compared to eating less of them, but this link isn't as strong as other ways salt could affect cancer risk.
Eating more salt doesn't seem to raise your chance of getting stomach cancer much, based on a big review of many studies.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.