HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION IN GASTRIC-CANCER - STUDY OF 84 CASES FROM ASIR REGION

Gastric cancer can be divided into three histologic types: intestinal and diffuse adenocarcinoma, and malignant lymphoma. To determine wheth er Helicobacter pylori was associated with either cancer type, we revi ewed histologic sections from stomachs of 84 patients with the diagnos is of gastric cancer. Of 63 patients with histologic evidence of intes tinal adenocarcinoma, 53 (84%) contained H. pylori in noncancerous tis sue compared with six (66.7%) of nine patients with diffuse adenocarci noma (odds ratio = 2.65; Z=1.048; P>0.05) and with eight (66.7%) of 12 patients with non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma of the stomach (odds rat io = 2.65; Z=0.826; P>0.05). Our findings are compared with reported d ata from other countries and we are not aware of similar reports from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.