Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 7, 2022; 28(17): 1871-1874
Published online May 7, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i17.1871
Could microbiome analysis be a new diagnostic tool in gastric carcinogenesis for high risk, Helicobacter pylori negative patients?
Alla Turshudzhyan, Houman Rezaizadeh
Alla Turshudzhyan, Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT 06030, United States
Houman Rezaizadeh, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT 06030, United States
Author contributions: Turshudzhyan A wrote the letter; Rezaizadeh H revised the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Turshudzhyan and Dr. Rezaizadeh have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Houman Rezaizadeh, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Connecticut, 263 Farmington Ave, Farmington, CT 06030, United States. rezaizadeh@uchc.edu
Received: January 21, 2022
Peer-review started: January 21, 2022
First decision: February 24, 2022
Revised: February 28, 2022
Accepted: March 27, 2022
Article in press: March 27, 2022
Published online: May 7, 2022
Processing time: 97 Days and 13.1 Hours
Abstract

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has long been believed to be the major colonizer of the stomach, but recent advances in genetic sequencing have allowed for further differentiation of the gastric microbiome and revealed the true complexity of the gastric microbiome. One of the few studies specifically evaluated the microbiome in the H. pylori negative patient population. They concluded that various stages of gastric carcinogenesis are associated with distinct bacterial taxa that could service both a predictive and diagnostic purpose. While the study has some limitations, the conclusions they make are intriguing and should prompt a larger prospective study to be done that spans multiple geographic regions.

Keywords: Gastric cancer; Gastric carcinogenesis; Microbiome; Dysplasia; Intestinal metaplasia

Core Tip: Gastric tumorigenesis in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) negative patients remained a mystery for many years until genetic sequencing allowed for a closer look at the composition of the gastric microbiome. Primary colonizers of the stomach in H. pylori negative patients at various stages of gastric tumorigenesis and were able to conclude that there are distinct bacterial taxa associated with these stages. Their study is comprehensive but needs a larger prospective study to further support this hypothesis, particularly in other geographic areas with varying risk profiles.