Vitamin D intake, Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels and risk of gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Gastric cancer remains as a chronic disease with a high rate of morbidity and mortality around the world. This study was done to systematically review and meta-analysis the current evidence on the association between vitamin D intake as well as serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels and risk of gastric cancer.

Published evidence in this area was searched to December 2012 through the use of ISI Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed/Medline, Ovid database, EMBASE and Google scholar for relevant articles by cross-referencing. Out of 132 retrieved papers in our search, 7 articles had reported odds ratios or relative risks as their effect size. Statistical analyses were conducted by using Stata version 11.2 the existence of between-study heterogeneity and publication bias was examined.

Based on the pooled effect size, the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for comparison of highest versus lowest intakes of vitamin D was 1.09 (0.94, 1.25; P=0.26) also for highest versus lowest serum vitamin D levels was 0.92 (0.74, 1.14; P=0.429) indicating no significant association between vitamin D intake or serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels and risk of gastric cancer; There was no evidence for between study heterogeneity.

we found no evidence for thesignificant association between vitamin D status and risk of gastric cancer.