A prospective cohort study published in BMC Gastroenterology has found that higher levels of bilirubin, albumin, and the albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) index are associated with a reduced risk of gastric cancer among men with a history of smoking. The study aimed to evaluate whether these antioxidant-related biomarkers could predict gastric cancer risk according to smoking status. Researchers analyzed data from 83,371 cancer-free men enrolled in the Korean Cancer Prevention Study-II (KCPS-II) cohort and followed them for an average of 13.5 years.
During the study period, 1,162 participants developed gastric cancer. Among ever-smokers, a one standard deviation increase in total bilirubin was associated with a 20% lower risk of gastric cancer, while former smokers experienced a 27% reduction in risk. Albumin demonstrated the strongest protective association, with approximately 41% lower gastric…
