Abstract
Inconsistent findings have emerged from epidemiological research investigating the association between vitamin B6 and the risk of gastric cancer. To obtain a more precise assessment, we conducted a comprehensive search of published data and performed a meta-analysis. PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched. A total of 12 studies (5 prospective cohort and 7 case–control studies) involving 5,692 cases and 814,157 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that high intake of vitamin B6 may reduce the odds of gastric cancer (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.73–0.95, p = 0.006). However, this association was only observed in the case–control studies (OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.51–0.89, p = 0.006) but not in the cohort studies (RR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.94–1.08, p = 0.819). Additionally, the negative association between vitamin B6 intake and gastric cancer risk was found in the United States of America (OR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.62–0.82, p = 10−4), but not in Europe (OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.74–1.05, p = 0.169) or the other regions (OR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.66–1.13, p = 0.280). In conclusion, there is not sufficient evidence to assume that vitamin B6 intake is associated with gastric cancer risk, which needs further confirmation.
Acknowledgment
We thank Edit age of Cactus Communications for the English language editing of the article.
Author contributions
Chang H, Li C and He JB developed the study concept, designed the study, conducted the electronic searches and wrote the draft of the manuscript. Li C, He JB and Fu HJ conducted validity assessment, data extraction and provided critical review of the manuscript. Li C and He JB tabulated data and conducted meta-analyses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethical approval
For this type of study formal consent is not required.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the [Science Data Bank] repository [https://www.scidb.cn/s/Yfi6Rn] and also are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.