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We read with interest the study by Zhang et al 1 which investigated the associations between oral antibiotic use and risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). The study included 166 057 participants and found that antibiotic use was associated with an increased risk of colon cancer but a reduced risk of rectal cancer. We also noticed another study by Armstrong et al 2 reporting that patients prescribed antibiotics in up to 15 years preceding diagnosis were associated with a higher risk of CRC. However, the study by Armstrong et al did not analyse the risk of colon cancer and rectal cancer, respectively. Considering current studies about antibiotic use and risk of CRC were inconsistent, we conducted this meta-analysis.
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Footnotes
Contributors QYW and RZ contributed equally in this study. QYW, RZ, YW and YW collected and analysed the data. QYW and RZ wrote the manuscript under the guidance of XTW. All the authors have read manuscript and XTW approved the final manuscript.
Funding This work was supported by Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Project (2018SZ0189).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.