WEDNESDAY, Oct. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Depending on where in the stomach Helicobacter pylori colonizes, the bacterial infection may either inhibit or promote the development of gastric adenocarcinoma, according to a report in the Oct. 18 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Farin Kamangar, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues measured serum immunoreactivity to H. pylori antigens in 234 case subjects with either cardia or non-cardia gastric cancer and 234 age-matched controls. Cardia gastric cancer refers to disease involving the esophagogastric junction.
While seropositivity for H. pylori was associated with an odds ratio of 7.9 for non-cardia gastric cancer, it also was inversely related to cardia gastric cancer, resulting in an odds ratio of 0.31.
"It seems prudent to include the putative protective effect of H. pylori against adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or cardia in the equation when drawing up prevention plans for gastric cancer," write Olof Nyren, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and William Blot, Ph.D., of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md., in an accompanying editorial.
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