Original Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2001. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 15, 2001; 7(6): 801-804
Published online Dec 15, 2001. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v7.i6.801
Association of H. pylori infection with gastric carcinoma: A meta analysis
Fu-Bo Xue, Yong-Yong Xu, Yi Wan, Bo-Rong Pan, Jun Ren, Dai-Ming Fan
Fu-Bo Xue, Yong-Yong Xu, Yi Wan, Department of Health Statistics, Gastroenterology of XiJing Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi Province, China
Bo-Rong Pan, Jun Ren, Department of Oncology, Gastroenterology of XiJing Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi Province, China
Dai-Ming Fan, Gastroenterology of Xijing Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by Funds for University Key Teachers by the Ministry of Education, No. 2000-65
Correspondence to: Fu-Bo Xue, Department of Health Statistics, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi Province, China. alnico@sohu.com
Telephone: +86-29-3374853
Received: July 19, 2001
Revised: September 19, 2001
Accepted: October 23, 2001
Published online: December 15, 2001
Abstract

AIM: To follow the principles of evidence based medicine to reach the integrated results of these studies.

METHODS: Twenty-one papers of case-control studies were selected, including 11 on gastric cancer, 7 on precancerous lesion of stomach and 3 on lymphoma of stomach. Meta analysis was used to sum up the odds ratios (OR) of these studies.

RESULTS: H. pylori vsgastric cancer (intestinal and diffuse type): the odds ratio from the fixed effect model is 3.0016 (95% CI: 2.4197-3.7234, P < 0.001). H. pylori vs precancerous lesion of stomach: a random effect model was used to calculate the summary odds ratio and its value is 2.5635 (95% CI: 1.8477-3.5566, P < 0.01). H. pylori vs lymphoma of stomach: though the quantity of literature is too small to make Meta analysis, the data of these 3 studies show that lymphoma of stomach is highly associated with H. pylori infections.

CONCLUSION: Since it had been revealed that H. pylori infection pre-exists in gastric carcinoma and precancerous lesions, the results of Meta analysis present a strong evidence to support the conclusion that H. pylori infection is a risk factor for gastric carcinoma.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori; Helicobacter infections; stomach neoplasms/microbiology; evidence-based medicine; meta-analysis