Conclusion that autoimmune gastritis does not predispose to gastric cancer is unproven

I read with great interest the paper by Rugge et al1 with the commentary by Goldenring2 challenging an old, established fact that autoimmune gastritis (AIG) (pernicious anaemia) predisposes to gastric adenocarcinoma.3 The idea behind the study by authors from three different countries was that AIG induces gastric adenocarcinoma only in those having had an initial, but transient Helicobacter pylori infection not detectable at the time of cancer diagnosis. They studied patients with presumed AIG (gastritis restricted to the oxyntic mucosa and negative for H. pylori) by endoscopy with biopsies two times with a mean of 7.5 years between the initial and follow-up endoscopy.1 Atrophy was evaluated by histology.4 Curiously, they did not do any serological assessment of oxyntic atrophy like pepsinogen I, vitamin B12 or gastrin. The quantification of oxyntic atrophy by histology based on a few biopsies is...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Open access, Gut PostScript Source Type: research