Ranitidine use not linked to increased cancer incidence

Individuals with ranitidine exposure do not appear to be at increased risk of cancer compared with those who have exposure to other histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs), according to a study.

For the study, researchers used data from three health claims and nine electronic health record databases from the US, the UK, Germany, Spain, France, South Korea, and Taiwan. The primary outcome of the incidence of any cancer, except nonmelanoma skin cancer, was compared between new users of ranitidine and new users of other H2RAs. These two groups of individuals were matched using large scale propensity score matching. Empirical calibration was performed to account for unobserved confounding.

A total of 1,183,999 individuals were included in the analysis. Of these, 909,168 (mean age 56.1 years, 55.8 percent women) were new users of ranitidine and 274,831 (mean age 58.0 years, 53.1 percent women) were new users of other H2RAs.

Crude incidence rates of cancer were similar between ranitidine and other H2RA users (14.30 vs 15.03 events per 1,000 person-years [PYs]). The rates remained comparable even after propensity score matching (15.92 vs 15.65 events per 1,000 PYs, respectively), with a calibrated meta-analytic hazard ratio of 1.04 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.97–1.12).

There were no significant associations seen between ranitidine use and any secondary outcomes (all cancers except thyroid cancer, 16 cancer subtypes, and all-cause mortality).