Key clinical point: Patients with histological intestinal metaplasia (IM) before eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection, especially at the corpus lesser curvature, may be at an increased risk for gastric cancer after successful eradication.
Major finding: Patients who did vs did not develop gastric cancer had significantly higher histological IM scores at all biopsy sites (P < .05) and a higher proportion of operative link on gastric IM (OLGIM) III/IV stage (P < .01). The corpus lesser curvature had the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value for IM score (0.82), which was similar to OLGIM score (0.82).
Study details: This single-center retrospective study included 247 patients who were diagnosed as positive for H. pylori and achieved infection eradication, of which 11 patients developed gastric cancer after eradication therapy.
Disclosures: This study did not report the source of funding. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Hara D et al. Histopathologically defined intestinal metaplasia in lesser curvature of corpus prior to Helicobacter pylori eradication is a risk factor for gastric cancer development. Helicobacter. 2022;27(6):e12934 (Oct 20). Doi: 10.1111/hel.12934