Alkan A, Mızrak D, Utkan G. Lower folate levels in gastric cancer: Is it a cause or a result? World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(13): 4101-4102 [PMID: 25852300 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i13.4101]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ali Alkan, MD, Medical Oncology, Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi, Cebecihastanesi, Mamak Ankara, Cebeci hastanesi, Mamak Ankara, 06300 Ankara, Turkey. alkanali@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Letters To The Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2015; 21(13): 4101-4102 Published online Apr 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i13.4101
Lower folate levels in gastric cancer: Is it a cause or a result?
Ali Alkan, Dılşa Mızrak, Güngör Utkan
Ali Alkan, Dılşa Mızrak, Güngör Utkan, Medical Oncology, Ankara University School of Medicine, 06300 Ankara, Turkey
Ali Alkan, Medical Oncology, Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi, Cebecihastanesi, Mamak Ankara, 06300 Ankara, Turkey
Author contributions: Alkan A, Mızrak D and Utkan G contributed equally to this work
Conflict-of-interest: All authors have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ali Alkan, MD, Medical Oncology, Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi, Cebecihastanesi, Mamak Ankara, Cebeci hastanesi, Mamak Ankara, 06300 Ankara, Turkey. alkanali@yahoo.com
Telephone: +90-312-5957321 Fax: +90-312-5957318
Received: September 5, 2014 Peer-review started: September 5, 2014 First decision: October 29, 2014 Revised: November 8, 2014 Accepted: December 14, 2014 Article in press: December 16, 2014 Published online: April 7, 2015
Abstract
Folate deficiency and its association with cancer have been studied in the literature, but its clinical impact is still unknown. Folate deficiency and its result on gastric cancer is a mysterious part of oncology, with ongoing studies hopefully clarifying its impact on gastric cancer management. Lee et al studied folate deficiency and its impact on staging and clinical results. Here we try to contribute to the field by expressing our own thoughts about the paper.
Core tip: The analysis by Lee et al in the paper has some limitations that must be pointed out. The severity of folate deficiency, replacement strategies, and probable vitamin B12 deficiencies should have been discussed. The paper does not do enough to accurately conclude a relationship between folate deficiency and gastric cancer severity.
