Stomach bug linked to gastric cancer.A fourth epidemiologic study epidemiologic study A study that compares 2 groups of people who are alike except for one factor, such as exposure to a chemical or the presence of a health effect; the investigators try to determine if any factor is associated with the health effect linking a specific bacterial infection to cancer of the stomach "puts forth beyond a reasonable doubt" the emerging theory that the bug is somehow associated with the often-fatal cancer, says a British researcher. But it remains unclear whether Helicobacter pylori Helicobacter pylori A gramnegative rod-shaped bacterium that lives in the tissues of the stomach and causes inflammation of the stomach lining. Mentioned in: Indigestion, Ulcers Helicobacter pylori actually causes gastric cancer gastric cancer Stomach cancer, see there , cautions David Forman of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund The Imperial Cancer Research Fund was a cancer research organization in the United Kingdom. In 2002, it merged with Cancer Research Campaign to form Cancer Research UK. in Oxford, England. In an editorial accompanying the latest research report - which appears in the Dec. 4 Journal of the National Cancer Institute - Forman writes that proof of a causal tie must await the outcome of future studies testing whether antibiotic treatment can reduce gastric cancer risk. In the new study, Nicholas J. Talley of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and his colleagues found that patients with gastric cancer were more likely to have antibodies to H. pylori than were healthy volunteers or patients with several other types of cancer. |
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