Association of Helicobacter pylori infection with precancerous lesions and stomach cancer: a case-control study in Yangzhong County.

Previous study has raised H. pylori infection as a suspected biologic risk factor for gastric cancer. A comparative case-control study involving precancerous lesions and gastric cancer was conducted in Yanzhong county, an area with one of the highest rates of gastric cancer in China to study the relationship between the H. pylori infection and gastric cancer. Subjects in the study were all randomly selected participants of a screening program for gastric cancer sponsored by the Cancer Institute of CAMS in cooperation with Yangzhong county Hospital. Totally, 125 normal controls, 108 superficial gastritis, 111 atrophic gastritis and 110 gastric cancer patients were included in our study according to endoscopy and pathology result. Status of H. pylori infection was evaluated by measuring IgG antibody in plasma with ELISA assay. Our result showed Odds ratios of H. pylori infection were higher among gastritis and cancer groups, 4.5 (95% CI 2.5-7.9) for superficial gastritis, 6.3 (95% CI 3.4-12) for atrophic gastritis, 3.3 (95% CI 1.9-5.9) for gastric cancer. It was found in our study that consumption of pickled vegetables and drinking dirty water increased the relative risk of H. pylori infection for both precancerous lesions and gastric cancer and that H. pylori infection had higher risk of atrophic gastritis and gastric cancer for males and also higher risk of atrophic gastritis for olders. Our results strongly support the casual role played by H. pylori infection in the carcinogenic process of gastric mucosa.