Ranitidine does not Increase Cancer Risk, confirms JAMA study

Ranitidine, a widely used histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H2RA), was withdrawn from the market in 2020 due to concerns about the presence of the potential carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). A recent study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found no evidence of an increased cancer risk associated with the use of ranitidine compared to other H2RAs.

This study conducted from January 1986 to December 2020, utilized data from three health claims and nine electronic health record databases spanning the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, South Korea, and Taiwan. The research aimed to compare the cancer risk associated with ranitidine and other H2RAs, including famotidine, lafutidine, nizatidine, and roxatidine.

Among the 1,183,999 individuals included in the study, 909,168 were identified as new users of ranitidine, while 274,831 were new users of other H2RAs. The crude incidence rates of cancer were found to be 14.30 events per 1000 person-years among ranitidine users and 15.03 events per 1000 person-years among other H2RA users.

After rigorous propensity score matching and calibration for potential confounding factors, the study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in cancer risk between the two groups. The calibrated meta-analytic hazard ratio was 1.04, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 0.97 to 1.12. This suggests that the use of ranitidine was not associated with a higher risk of cancer compared to other H2RAs.

Additionally, the study explored secondary outcomes, including the risk of specific cancer subtypes and all-cause mortality. No significant associations were found between ranitidine use and these secondary outcomes after calibration.

This extensive cohort study provides reassuring evidence that the use of ranitidine is not linked to an increased risk of cancer when compared to other H2RAs. However, as with any medical research, further investigations are needed to understand the potential long-term effects of ranitidine use on cancer development fully. 

Reference:

You, S. C., Seo, S. I., Falconer, T., Yanover, C., Duarte-Salles, T., Seager, S., Posada, J. D., Shah, N. H., Hsu, M.-H., Lee, H. L., Ko, H., Shin, W. G., Pratt, N., Park, R. W., Reich, C. G., … Prieto-Alhambra, D. (2023). Ranitidine Use and Incident Cancer in a Multinational Cohort. In JAMA Network Open (Vol. 6, Issue 9, p. e2333495). American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.33495