Study Further Links Proton Pump Inhibitors to Gastric Cancer and Conflicts with FDA study, Lawsuits to Follow

Santa Clara, CAA link between proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and high risk of gastric cancer isn’t new, but the results of a new study conflicts with the FDA’s mandated PPI study.

Cancer Risk after H.pylori Eradication

The October, 2017 study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) was conducted by researchers from Hong Kong. While they noted that a bacterium called H. pylori –which is linked to gastric ulcers -- is a known risk factor for stomach cancer, they found that stomach cancer may still occur, even when treatment has successfully eradicated H.pylori.

Further, the study determined that the risk of gastric cancer increases with the dose and duration of PPI use. Their conclusion: “Long-term use of PPIs in subjects with prior H. pylori eradication was still associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer development, particularly for non-cardia cancer. There was also a clear dose-response and time-response trend of PPI use and gastric cancer risk. Physicians should therefore exercise caution when prescribing long-term PPIs to these patients even after successful eradication of H. pylori.

In other words, patients with H. pylori were at an even greater risk of stomach cancer if they took PPIs. In this study, people who took PPIs daily were at a higher risk, and people who took PPIs daily for more than three years were at the highest risk.

And epidemiologists consider a “dose-response” relationship important evidence that a drug is causing a side effect.

FDA Proton Pump Inhibitors Study

This study conflicts with an FDA-mandated study ( published in November, 2017) that was conducted with pantoprazole, said David A. Johnson, MD, chief of gastroenterology at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. Those researchers found that patients were developing stomach cancer from the bacterium instead of from drugs like Nexium, Prilosec, and Prevacid: “We found no evidence that pantoprazole, a longer acting PPI, compared with shorter-acting agents, conferred an excess risk of gastric cancer, other gastrointestinal cancers or all cancers for pantoprazole compared with other shorter-acting PPIs,” they concluded.

As of 2018, the Food and Drug Administration has approved six proton-pump inhibitors for treatment of gastrointestinal issues:

• Omeprazole / Prilosec
• Esomeprazole / Nexium
• Lansoprazole / Prevacid
• Dexlansoprazole / Dexilant
• Pantoprazole / Protonix
• Rabeprazole / AcipHex

PPI Gastric Cancer Lawsuits

Attorneys believe there is “reasonable evidence of a causal association” and that the PPI manufacturers should have added a warning.

None of the above drugs warn of an increased risk of gastric cancer in people who use them. Despite studies showing that the longer a person takes PPIs, the greater the risk, drug manufacturers don’t even suggest that PPIs should not be taken long-term because of the increased cancer risk due to drugs like Nexium and Prilosec. Neither is gastric cancer listed as a side effect in their advertisements, nor the prescribing information provided to doctors, nor in the medication guide provided to patients.

Attorneys are looking at PPI and gastric cancer complaints and litigation is developing. To date there have been no settlements for gastric cancer caused by proton-pump inhibitors.