Dietary intake of copper and gastric cancer: a pooled analysis within the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project

Background Evidence on the potential association between dietary copper intake and gastric cancer (GC) is lacking. Thus, we aimed to evaluate this association within the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project—an international consortium of epidemiological studies on GC. Methods Data from five case–control studies within the StoP Project were included (2448 cases, 4350 controls). We estimated adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs for the association between dietary copper intake and GC using multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression models. We also modelled the dose–response relationship between copper intake and GC using a logistic mixed-effects model with fractional polynomial. Results The OR for the highest quartile of copper intake compared with the lowest one was 0.78 (95% CI: 0.63–0.95; P for trend = 0.013). Results were similar for non-cardia-type (OR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.57–0.91), intestinal-type (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.56–0.99) and other histological-type GC (OR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.44–0.96). The dose–response analysis showed a steep decrease in ORs for modest intakes (<1 mg/day), which were subsequently steady for ≤3 mg/day (OR: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.02–0.41) and slowly increased for higher intakes. Conclusions The findings of our large study suggest that copper intake might be inversely associated with GC, although their confirmation by prospective studies is required.