IS HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION A REAL RISK FACTOR FOR GASTRIC-CARCINOMA

Background and Methods: That Helicobacter pylori has a role in the pat hogenesis of gastric carcinoma is widely accepted, although not all do ubts are definitively clarified. The purpose of this work was to detec t the differences in presence and mean titer of anti-H. pylori antibod ies between groups with gastric (n = 65), colonic (n = 70), and lung ( n = 43) carcinoma. Results: The highest prevalence of anti-H. pylori a ntibodies was found in patients with pulmonary carcinoma (88.4%), whic h significantly surpassed (p = 0.02) that in the group with gastric ca rcinoma (69.2%). The groups with colonic and gastric carcinomas failed to show any difference in this respect. Mean antibody titer was signi ficantly higher in subjects with lung carcinoma than in those with gas tric carcinoma (p = 0.005). This difference was unrelated to age. Conc lusions: These results contradict the hypothesis assuming a relationsh ip between H. pylori infection and the sequence of phenomena leading t o gastric carcinoma.