Use of artificial sweeteners by cancer patients

Current daily use of artificial sweeteners (AS) and diet drinks was evaluated for 1,862 patients hospitalized for cancer and for 10,874 "control" patients hospitalized for other conditions believed not to be associated with use of these substances. The data were derived from an ongoing survey in seven countries. For cancer of most sites, the age-standardized proportion of users of AS was somewhat less than that for controls. A greater proportion of users among cancer patients than among controls was noted only for cancer of the stomach among women. Little information on urinary tract cancer was available; there were no users of AS among 13 patients with cancer of the bladder, 5 with cancer of the renal pelvis, and 2 with cancer of the ureter. There were 455 cancer patients known to have been interviewed during their initial hospitalization for the disease. Based on these cases, an age-sex-country-standardized estimate of cancer incidence for users of AS, relative to nonusers, was 1.0. Only a very small proportion of patients reported daily use of diet drinks, and the proportion of users did not differ substantially between cancer patients and controls. The present data provide virtually no support for an overall positive association of AS with cancer.