LACK OF ASSOCIATION OF HELICOBACTER-PYLORI SEROPREVALENCE AND GASTRIC-CANCER IN A POPULATION WITH LOW GASTRIC-CANCER INCIDENCE

Background: Previous studies have suggested that infection with Helico bacter pylori is associated with an increased risk of gastric adenocar cinoma. Methods: We examined the sera of 111 Caucasian patients with h istologically confirmed gastric cancer (36 with cancer of the cardia, 70 with cancer of the body or antrum, and 5 with stump carcinomas afte r Billroth-II procedures) and 111 age-matched controls with colorectal carcinomas for the presence of H. pylori IgG antibodies by enzyme-lin ked immunoassay. Results: The overall prevalence of H. pylori infectio n was 58.6% (65 of 111) in gastric cancer patients as compared with 50 .5% (56 of 111) in matched control subjects (odds ratio, 1.39; 95% con fidence interval, 0.82 to 2.36). Carcinomas of the cardia were not lin ked to H. pylori infection (odds ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 0.49 to 3.18), nor were carcinomas of the body and antrum (odds ratio , 1.26; 95% confidence interval, 0.65 to 2.46), nor diffuse or intesti nal-type carcinomas (odds ratios, 1.79 and 1.0; 95% confidence interva ls, 0.69 to 4.67 and 0.34 to 2.91, respectively). Age, sex, and height of the IgG immune response did not affect risk. Conclusions: In contr ast to previous results, these data do not provide evidence that the c ontribution of H. pylori infection to the carcinogenesis of gastric ca ncer is of major significance in a population with low gastric cancer rates and with high socioeconomic status.