Association between Helicobacter pylori seropositivity and digestive tract cancers

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of digestive tract cancer patients and controls n (%)

	Cancer				Control
	Oral SCC	Esophageal SCC	Gastric adenocarcinoma	Colon adenocarcinoma	1st hospital-based control	2nd hospital-based control	Community-based control
n	199	317	196	240	305	403	395
Age mean ± SD	50.6 ± 9.9	58.3 ± 11.6	63.2 ± 13.5	64.5 ± 12.7	57.1 ± 11.4	60.0 ± 10.2	40.2 ± 6.2
(min, med, max)	(26, 50, 78)	(34, 58, 86)	(22, 65, 91)	(24, 66, 89)	(34, 57, 82)	(39, 60, 84)	(30, 40, 58)
Sex
Male	188 (90.5)	301 (95.0)	123 (62.8)	139 (57.9)	289 (94.8)	374 (92.8)	204 (51.6)
Female	11 (5.5)	16 (5.0)	73 (37.2)	101 (42.1)	16 (5.2)	29 (7.2)	191 (48.4)
Educational level
≤ primary school	117 (58.8)	176 (55.5)	118 (60.2)	133 (55.4)	78 (25.6)	162 (40.2)	41 (10.4)
Junior high & high school	76 (38.2)	120 (37.9)	53 (27.0)	72 (30.0)	93 (30.5)	76 (18.9)	241 (61.0)
> high school	6 (3.0)	21 (6.6)	25 (12.8)	35 (14.6)	134 (43.9)	165 (40.9)	113 (28.6)
Cigarette smoking
No	32 (16.1)	39 (12.3)	101 (51.5)	143 (59.6)	168 (55.1)	248 (61.5)	283 (71.6)
Yes	167 (83.9)	278 (87.7)	95 (48.5)	97 (40.4)	137 (44.9)	155 (38.5)	112 (28.4)
Alcohol consumption
No	64 (32.2)	60 (18.9)	145 (74.0)	193 (80.4)	215 (70.5)	288 (71.5)	298 (75.4)
Yes	135 (67.8)	257 (81.1)	51 (26.0)	47 (19.6)	90 (29.5)	115 (28.5)	97 (24.6)
Betel quid chewing
No	29 (14.6)	149 (47.0)	171 (87.2)	213 (88.8)	280 (91.8)	381 (94.5)	-
Yes	170 (85.4)	168 (53.0)	25 (12.8)	27 (11.2)	25 (8.2)	22 (5.5)	-

SCC: Squamous cell carcinoma.

Table 2 Serum status of H pylori and CagA in cancer patients and control n (%)

	Cancer					Control
	Oral SCC	Esophageal SCC	Gastric cardia adenocarcinoma	Gastric non-cardia adenocarcinoma	Colon adenocarcinoma	1st hospital-based control	2nd hospital-based control	Community-based control
n	199	317	29	167	240	305	403	395
H pylori
-	104 (52.3)	205 (64.7)	8 (27.6)	48 (28.7)	105 (43.8)	141 (46.2)	164 (40.7)	235 (59.5)
+	95 (47.7)	112 (35.3)	21 (72.4)	119 (71.3)	135 (56.3)	164 (53.8)	239 (59.3)	160 (40.5)
CagA1
-	14 (14.7)	8 (7.3)	1 (4.8)	9 (7.6)	12 (8.9)	24 (14.6)	-	11 (6.9)
±	13 (13.7)	10 (9.2)	3 (14.3)	8 (6.8)	7 (5.2)	14 (8.5)	-	6 (3.8)
+	68 (71.6)	91 (83.5)	17 (81.0)	101 (85.6)	116 (85.9)	126 (76.8)	-	142 (89.0)

¹CagA status was determined among the subjects with H pylori seropositivity (No CagA data was available in 3 esophageal SCC, 1 gastric non-cardia adenocarcinoma and 1 community-based control).

Table 3 Association between H pylori infection and cancer risks

		Odds ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Adjusted odds ratio (95% CI)1	P-value
Oral SCC vs	1st hospital control	0.105 (0.787-1.553)	0.5640	0.961 (0.637-1.449)	0.8494
	2nd hospital control	0.627 (0.445-0.882)	0.0074	0.378 (0.190-0.751)	0.0055
	community control	1.342 (0.952-1.891)	0.0932	1.064 (0.622-1.820)	0.8211
Esophageal SCC vs	1st hospital control	0.470 (0.340-0.648)	< 0.0001	0.454 (0.290-0.710)	0.0005
	2nd hospital control	0.375 (0.277-0.508)	< 0.0001	0.315 (0.203-0.489)	< 0.0001
	community control	0.802 (0.591-1.089)	0.1581	0.472 (0.257-0.865)	0.0151
Gastric adenocarcinoma vs	1st hospital control	2.149 (1.465-3.152)	< 0.0001	2.015 (1.278-3.174)	0.0025
	2nd hospital control	1.715 (1.187-2.479)	0.0041	1.636 (1.071-2.501)	0.0228
	community control	3.672 (2.538-5.312)	< 0.0001	3.060 (1.650-5.674)	0.0004
Colon adenocarcinoma vs	1st hospital control	0.785 (0.549-1.123)	0.1857	0.595 (0.319-1.113)	0.1040
	2nd hospital control	0.882 (0.639-1.219)	0.4476	0.851 (0.581-1.245)	0.4055
	community control	1.888 (1.365-2.613)	0.0001	1.117 (0.612-2.039)	0.7177

¹Compared to KMUH or NTUH controls: adjusting for age (continuous), gender (female vs male), educational levels (≤ primary school vs > high school; junior and high schools vs > high school), cigarette smoking (yes vs no), alcohol consumption (yes vs no) and betel nut chewing (yes vs no); Compared to community controls: Adjusting for the above factors except for betel nut chewing.