ArticleCancer epidemiology2015
Risk of oesophageal cancer among patients previously hospitalised with eating disorder.
Article in Cancer epidemiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship between irregular diet and risk of esophageal cancer: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Pooled it
- Eating disorders and the risk of developing cancer: a systematic review.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2021Pooled it
- Association of Anorexia Nervosa With Risk of Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA network open · 2019Pooled it
- The medical complications associated with purging.The International journal of eating disorders · 2016Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Eating Disorders and Later Incidence of Cancer: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study in Denmark.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Esophageal Cancer with Early Onset in a Patient with Cri du Chat Syndrome.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Low risk of some common cancers in women with anorexia nervosa: Evidence from a national record-linkage study.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2023Article
- Psychiatric and medical comorbidities of eating disorders: findings from a rapid review of the literature.Journal of eating disorders · 2022Review
- Anorexia nervosa and the gastrointestinal tract.Frontline gastroenterology · 2022Article
- Article
- Common and Emergent Oral and Gastrointestinal Manifestations of Eating Disorders.Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2021Article
- Relationships between inappropriate eating habits and problematic alcohol use, cigarette and waterpipe dependence among male adolescents in Lebanon.BMC public health · 2021Observational
- Eating Disorders and Gastrointestinal Diseases.Nutrients · 2019Review
- Prevalence of Neoplasms among Former Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients.Psychiatry investigation · 2019Article
- Psychiatric comorbidity as a risk factor for the mortality of people with bulimia nervosa.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2019Article
- Gastrointestinal symptoms and disorders in patients with eating disorders.Clinical journal of gastroenterology · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIt has been suggested that the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma might be increased in patients with a history of eating disorders due to acidic damage to oesophageal mucosa caused by self-induced vomiting practiced as a method of weight control. Eating disorders have also been associated with risk factors for squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus, including alcohol use disorders, as well as smoking and nutritional deficiencies, which have been associated with both main sub-types of oesophageal cancer. There have been several case reports of oesophageal cancer (both main sub-types) arising in patients with a history of eating disorders.
methodsWe used linked records of hospitalisation, cancer registration and mortality in Scotland spanning 1981-2012 to investigate the risk of oesophageal cancer among patients with a prior history of hospitalisation with eating disorder. The cohort was restricted to patients aged ≥10 years and <60 years at the date of first admission with eating disorder. Disregarding the first year of follow-up, we calculated indirectly standardised incidence ratios using the general population as the reference group to generate expected numbers of cases (based on age-, sex-, socio-economic deprivation category-, and calendar period-specific rates of disease).
resultsAfter exclusions, the cohort consisted of 3617 individuals contributing 52,455 person-years at risk. The median duration of follow-up was 13.9 years. Seven oesophageal cancers were identified, as compared with 1.14 expected, yielding a standardised incidence ratio of 6.1 (95% confidence interval: 2.5-12.6). All were squamous cell carcinomas arising in females with a prior history of anorexia nervosa.
conclusionsPatients hospitalised previously with eating disorders are at increased risk of developing oesophageal cancer. Confounding by established risk factors (alcohol, smoking, and nutritional deficiency) seems a more likely explanation than acidic damage through self-induced vomiting because none of the incident cases of oesophageal cancer were adenocarcinomas, and because the study cohort had higher than background rates of hospitalisation with alcohol-related conditions and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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