Despite the voluntary withdrawal earlier this year of ranitidine from the U.S. marketplace for its potential to cause cancer, no increased risk for gastrointestinal malignancies linked to the reflux drug emerged in a recent study of a large multi-institutional database.
In fact, patients who took ranitidine had a numerically lower risk for GI cancers relative to famotidine, another H2 receptor blocker, or the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole. After adjustment, the relative difference in cancer