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[Relationship between type III intestinal metaplasia, age and gastric cancer. 560 biopsies]
Y Rabouille1, H Elie, C Challes
1Service d'Anatomie et de Cytologie pathologiques, Centre Hospitalier Louis Pasteur, Cherbourg.
Objective:
A significant association between type III intestinal metaplasia and gastric adenocarcinoma has been demonstrated in gastrectomy and biopsy series. We investigated the effect of age in a large series of gastric biopsies in order to determine whether this association is age dependent or independent.
Methods:
Histochemistry examinations were performed in 560 gastric biopsies showing intestinal metaplasia. The percentage of type III versus type I/II metaplasia in patients with malignant (n = 41) or benign disease (n = 519) was compared between patients aged 50 to 69 years and patients aged 70 to 89 years.
Results:
The prevalence of type III metaplasia increased with age both in malignant (30 vs 61% in the 50-69 and 70-89 year age groups respectively) and benign disease (9 vs 17% respectively). In patients with cancer, type III metaplasia was found more often than type I/II metaplasia (n = 22 vs 19). In the 70-89 year age group, there was a significant difference (p < 0.001) in the percentage of type III metaplasia in patients with cancer (61%) and those with benign disease (17%).
Conclusion:
These findings demonstrate that there is a specific age-independent relationship between intestinal metaplasia and gastric cancer.