THURSDAY, Aug. 25, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Antibiotics may not be enough to stop recurring gastric lymphoma, a type of cancer caused by bacteria, according to an article in the September issue of The American Journal of Pathology.
Helicobacter pylori, a spiral bacterium of the stomach, infects more than half the world's population and is widely recognized as a cause of gastric lymphoma.
But researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found that successful eradication of the germ does not guarantee that the cancer won't recur, because "resting" precancerous cells remain behind following antibiotic treatment.
The doctors conducted their research on lab mice infected with the bacterium. They found that lymphoma was more prevalent in reinfected animals than in animals infected for the first time.
The researchers concluded that it is important that treated patients be carefully monitored for Helicobacter pylori reinfection following treatment.
More information
The National Cancer Institute has more about gastric cancer.
