Re: Carbonated Soft Drink Consumption and Risk of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

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Mayne et al. ( 1 ) provided relevant information on the association between carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and esophageal cancer risk using data from a population-based case–control study conducted in the United States. CSD may increase gastric distension, and consequently gastroesophageal reflux disease and could hence have contributed to the increasing trend of esophageal adenocarcinoma ( 2 ) , which parallels the increase in CSD consumption. However, odds ratios (ORs) for the highest (≥1 drink/day) versus the lowest (<1 drink/month) quartiles of CSD consumption were 0.47 for esophageal adenocarcinoma (282 case patients), 0.74 for gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (255 case patients), 0.85 for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 206 case patients), and 0.65 for noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (352 case patients), with a statistically significant inverse trend in risk for esophageal adenocarcinoma. To provide additional information to this issue, we analyzed data from a hospital-based case–control study conducted in northern Italy between 1992 and 1997 ( 3 ) .