HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION AND CANCER

This paper will briefly review the evidence for the role of Helicobact er pylori infection in the aetiology of gastric cancer and consider th e implications of this relationship. The critical issue of whether H. pylori eradication may play a part in a strategy for the prevention of gastric cancer will then be discussed. Although this paper will large ly be concerned with epidemiological evidence, it should be emphasised that an understanding of the mechanistic basis to the H. pylori-cance r relationship is also advancing rapidly and this area will be reviewe d in the paper by Correa elsewhere in this issue.