Table 1.

Details of studies meeting inclusion criteria

Author, Year, Region Study Type	Cancer Type	Type of Sweetener	Study Period (End of follow-up)	Study Population (Mean Age: Exposed, Unexposed)	Male/Female (Exposed, Unexposed) Total N	Selection of Controls	Exposure Duration and Amount¹	Cancer Data Source/Method of Confirmation
Schernhammer et al, 2005, USA Prospective Cohort	Pancreatic	Diet Soft Drinks	1976–1998; 1986 – 1990 (2000)	Women from Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) cohort age 30–55; Men from Health Professionals Follow up Study (HFPS) cohort age 40–75 at entry/questionnaire (47.2, 47.5)	27270M/44049F, 22094M/44745F Total N: 138158	N/A	Separated into groups based on drink frequency (almost never = reference; <1/month vs. greater)	Questionnaire, confirmed with medical records; received follow up questionnaire biennially
Bao et al, 2008, USA Prospective Cohort	Pancreatic	Diet soft drinks	1995–2003 (2003)	American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) members (61.8, 62.5)	119957 M/99855 F, 164119 M/103991 F Total N: 487922	N/A	Quintiles of various sweetener amounts/quantified as “never” vs. quintiles of soft drinks per day; for analysis, categorized as “never” vs. “ever"	Cancer registry
Navarrete-Munoz et al, 2016, Europe³ Prospective Cohort	Pancreatic	Diet soft drinks	1992–2000 (varied; 2004–2009)²	10 European Countries (50.3, 53.3)	40185M/100945F, 60901M/166340F Total N: 368371	N/A	Intake in the year leading up to diagnosis /unexposed cutoff of <0.1gram/day⁴	Cancer Registry
Hodge et al, 2018, Australia Prospective Cohort	Gastric, colorectal	Diet soft drinks	1990–1994; 2003–2007 (2013)	Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (53.4, 55.1)	3460M/5472F, 10641M/16020F Total N: 35593	N/A	Intake in the year leading up to diagnosis /unexposed cutoff <1 "time" per month	Victorian Cancer Registry, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, National Death Index, Australian Cancer Database and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, including the National Death Index and the Australian Cancer Database
Norell et al, 1986, Sweden Case-Control	Pancreatic	Artificial sweetener, no other details provided	1982–1984 (N/A)	3 surgical centers in Sweden (unavailable)	Unavailable Total N: 234	Age-matched, selected from parish registries⁵	Not specified for threshold (yes/no)	Pathology, radiology
Bosetti et al, 2009, Italy Case-Control	Gastric, pancreatic	Saccharin, Aspartame	1991–2007 (N/A)	Hospitalized patients in Italy (63, 63)	Unavailable Total N, Gastric: 772 Total N, Pancreatic: 977	Age, sex, and study center-matched controls admitted for acute, non-neoplastic disorders	Unavailable (simplifies to nonusers vs users)	Histologically confirmed, hospital cases from four Italian regions
Chan et al, 2009, USA Case-Control	Pancreatic	Diet Soft Drinks/Low calorie beverages	1995–1999 (N/A)	San Francisco residents (unavailable)	Unavailable Total N: 2227⁶	Age and sex matched	Intake studied for the year leading up to patienťs diagnosis/ various cutoffs with lowest <1 serving per month	Northern California Cancer Center Registry
Gallus et al, 2007, Italy Case-Control	Oropharyngeal, esophagus, colon, rectum	Saccharin, and “other” (mostly aspartame)	1991–2004 (N/A)	Hospitalized patients in Italy, interviewed during hospital stay (unavailable)	Unavailable Total N (Oropharyngeal): 2089 Total N (Esophagus): 1046 Total N (Colorectal): 6107⁷	Matched controls admitted for acute, non-neoplastic disorders in some, but otherwise not specified	Intake studied for the two years leading up to diagnosis/unexposed defined as 0 "sachet or tablet" per day	Histologically confirmed, hospital cases from four Italian regions

All studies used Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ), which varied based on the specific study (see also text)

Follow-up was considered completed up to the end of 2009 for Germany, France, and Greece; mid-2008 for Cambridge; 2008 for Turin, Norway, and Sweden; 2007 for Denmark, Netherlands, Murcia, Navarra, and Oxford; 2006 for Florence, Varese, Ragusa, Naples, Granada, and San Sebastian; and 2004 for Asturias.

Raw numbers differed when comparing supplemental material to limited numbers in published study. Since raw numbers were needed, N’s for calculations were all gathered from supplemental material.

⁴

12oz beverage = 336g

⁵

Study included both “population” and “hospital” controls (note: “Hospital” controls were patients admitted to the hospital with inguinal hernias). Population controls were used for this meta-analysis given more similar to controls in other studies.

⁶

Control N’s differ by +/−1, but no explanation is provided in the study. The largest number reported for the same population of controls was used to calculate total N. But for individual OR calculation, and meta-analyses, individual control N’s were respected for each group as seen in Table 2.

⁷

Colon and rectal cancers cases were separated for calculations OR’s in original paper, compared to the same group of controls (N = 4154). In total N calculations, controls (N=4154) were only counted once.

Abbreviations: USA, United States of America; N/A, not applicable; M, male; F, female