September 13, 2001 (The Associated Press) - Eradicating an ulcer-causing germ as a way to prevent stomach cancer is a good idea - at least in Japan, a researcher says.
Because the germ is common and stomach cancer relatively rare, experts have disagreed about whether doctors should use antibiotics to kill the bacteria, called Helicobacter pylori.
Of 1,526 patients with ulcers and other gastric problems in a study, 1,246 were infected with the bacteria, Dr. Naomi Uemura wrote in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Of that group, 36 patients developed stomach cancer, wrote Uemura, of Kure Kyosai Hospital in Kure City, Japan. Also in that group, 253 patients were given treatment that eradicated their infections, and none developed cancer, he wrote.
That is "one of the most tantalizing and provocative findings in the study," Dr. Timothy G. Wang of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and James G. Fox, a veterinarian, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in an editorial in the journal.
"Most of those doubts about the link between H. pylori and gastric cancer can now be put to rest," Wang and Fox wrote.
Uemura wrote by e-mail that his recommendation to eradicate H. pylori in patients who also have specific gastric problems is more applicable in Japan than in the United States.
Japan has the world's highest incidence of gastric cancer - partly because annual checkups include an endoscopic examination, allowing very early detection, he noted.
The incidence of gastric cancer in the United States is much lower, although cancers unrelated to H. pylori infections are on the rise, he wrote in the e-mail.
"I do not recommend eradication therapy for all symptomatic patients found to have H. pylori in the U.S.," although those who want the treatment should be able to get it, Uemura wrote.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
