Association of Helicobacter pylori and diffuse type gastric cancer

The major purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of Helicobacter pylori and diffuse type gastric cancer (DGC) clinicopathologically (study 1). The second aim was to investigate genetic differences of H. pylori in patients with DGC and intestinal type cancer (IGC) (study 2). The prevalence of H. pylori and the types of histopathological changes were evaluated in resected early gastric cancer (DGC; 25 patients, IGC; 25 patients). Genetic differences of H. pylori in DGC patients (n = 19) and IGC patients (n = 22) were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods in terms of restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns of the ureB gene and cagA gene positive rates. All patients had evidence of H. pylori infection in the resected stomach, but the positive rate for H. pylori in the area surrounding cancer was 52% (in DGC; 56%, IGC; 48%). But in 40.0% of DGC cases (10/25), mucosal atrophy and intestinal metaplasia were rarely seen in the area surrounding cancer and the positive rate of H. pylori was 80.0% (8/10), in contrast, in 60.0% of IGC cases (15/25), atrophy and metaplasia were progressed and positive rate of H. pylori was 26.7% (4/15) in the area. UreB gene products from 89.5% of DGC cases (17/19) were unable to be digested by Spe I. 31.8% of products from IGC cases (7/22) were also unable to be digested by Spe I, but the positive rate of cagA gene in this group was higher than other groups. The high prevalence of H. pylori infection in DGC patients suggests that H. pylori plays a role in the pathogenesis of DGC, but in the stomach with DGC, it is considered atrophy and intestinal metaplasia are not so implicated in H. pylori, compared with IGC. A genetic specificity of H. pylori in DGC and IGC was indicated by the results, suggesting that H. pylori may play different roles in the pathogenesis of DGC and IGC.