Gastric cancer is the third commonest cause of cancer death worldwide, with almost three quarters of a million deaths annually. Despite a declining incidence in many countries in the developed world, there is an increase in global mortality from the disease because of population growth and increasing longevity in developing countries.Infection withHelicobacter pylori3causes chronic gastritis which can lead to gastric atrophy and intestinal metaplasia. These are the main histological precursors to gastric cancer, and it is therefore plausible thatH pyloriinfection may cause gastric cancer.
A systematic review of nested case-control studies confirmed that individuals who tested positive forH pyloriwere between three and six times more likely to develop gastric cancer compared with uninfected controls. Such data led the International Agency for Research on Cancer toconclude thatH pyloriwas a class I human carcinogen. A policy of searching for and eradicatingH pyloriamong healthy asymptomatic individuals in populations at high risk of gastric cancer could theoretically lead to a reduction in the incidence of gastric cancer. However, healthcare providers have not considered this policy seriously, and are unlikely to do so until randomised controlled trials show such a strategy to be effective.
A randomised controlled trial was done on the same subject which was published in British Medical Journal.
You can find the whole text here-
http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3174
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