HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION AND THE RISK OF GASTRIC-CANCER AMONG THE KOREAN POPULATION

Helicobacter pylori infection has been associated with chronic atrophi c gastritis, a precursor of gastric cancer. We conducted a prospective , case-controlled study to investigate whether H. pylori infection inc reases the risk of gastric cancer in Korean people with a high risk of gastric cancer. We enrolled 160 gastric cancer patients who were conf irmed by endoscopic biopsy during 1994 and. 160 age-matched control su bjects with non-ulcer dyspepsia were compared to document the relation ship between H. pylori infection and gastric cancer. The presence of H . pylori infection was determined by the rapid urease rest and/or hist ology by Wright-Giemsa staining. The overall presence of H. pylori inf ection was 60% in gastric cancer patients and 51.9% in age-matched con trol subjects (odds ratio 1.39; 95% confidence interval 0.894-2.17; P= 0.143). Carcinomas of cardia, body and antrum were not associated with H. pylori infection (odds ratio 1.43, 1.69 and 1.29, respectively; 95 % confidence interval, 0.271-7.52, 0.787-3.62 and 0.689-2.43, respecti vely; P=0.178, 0.177 and 0.642, respectively) nor was the intestinal o r diffuse type of cancer (odds ratio 1.39 and 1.40, respectively; 95% confidence interval 0.791-2.45 and 0.681-2.87, respectively; P = 0.250 and 0.835, respectively). Gender was not a risk for gastric cancer. I n contrast to previous studies, these results do nor provide evidence of H. pylori infection for gastric carcinogenesis in Korea.