Stomach Cancer and Parabens

Background and Objectives: Parabens are one of the chemicals used widely in preserving foods and pharmaceutical preparations. Although it was safe for many years, recently it has been proven that its action mimics estrogen in the body when it is linked to its receptors, known as estrogen receptors which are present in many systems of the body and that it may have a link with breast cancer, especially after it was found in samples of breast cancer. As known that estrogen receptors are placed in different areas in the body, including the stomach, therefore it may have a role in cancer formation and development in the stomach.

The purpose of this manuscript is to investigate the presence of Methyl, Ethyl and Propylparaben in stomach cancer in men and women.

Methods: Samples of stomach cancer have been collected immediately after surgery in Al Assad University Hospital and after extracting parabens from samples, they have been analyzed by HPLC / MS in the science faculty at Damascus University.

Results: All samples have the three types of parabens with total mean concentration (22.5 ± 0.4 ng/g).

The concentration of Methylparaben was the highest (8.2 ± 0.3 ng/g) then Propylparaben (7.4 ± 0.4 ng/g) and finally Ethylparaben (6.9 ± 0.2 ng/g).

Conclusion: Because of the presence of parabens in all stomach cancer samples, so more studies must be done to research if parabens may have any effect in the formation of abnormal cells and the formation of cancer in the body systems which have estrogen receptors.