Gong X, Chen C, Shen JF. Gastric cancer in children infected with Helicobacter pylori. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2025; 17(6): 103632 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i6.103632]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jun-Fei Shen, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Dazu Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 1073 South Second Ring Road, Hongxing Community, Tangxiang Subdistrict, Dazu District, Chongqing 402360, China. 18702355030@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
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 Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2025; 17(6): 103632 Published online Jun 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i6.103632
Gastric cancer in children infected with Helicobacter pylori
Xia Gong, Cen Chen, Jun-Fei Shen
Xia Gong, Cen Chen, Jun-Fei Shen, Department of Pediatrics, Dazu Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 402360, China
Co-first authors: Xia Gong and Cen Chen.
Author contributions: Gong X and Chen C contribute equally to this work; Gong X and Chen C designed the research study; Gong X and Shen JF performed the primary literature and data extraction; Gong X and Chen C analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Gong X, Chen C and Shen JF were responsible for revising the manuscript for important intellectual content; All authors read and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Dazu Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 2024 LLSC128.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at 18225261830@163.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
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: Jun-Fei Shen, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Dazu Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 1073 South Second Ring Road, Hongxing Community, Tangxiang Subdistrict, Dazu District, Chongqing 402360, China. 18702355030@163.com
Received: February 12, 2025 Revised: March 19, 2025 Accepted: March 20, 2025 Published online: June 15, 2025 Processing time: 120 Days and 17.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
This retrospective study aimed to define associations between Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) in childhood and risk factors for gastric cancer with special emphasis on the role of family history of cancer.
AIM
To define associations between H. pylori in childhood and risk factors for gastric cancer with special emphasis on the role of family history of cancer.
METHODS
Details of 600 children who were subjected to upper gastrointestinal endoscopies at our institution are analyzed. Children were classified into positive and negative groups for H. pylori infection based on biopsy and rapid urease tests. The occurrences of gastric carcinoma, chronic superficial gastritis, glandular atrophy, and intestinal metaplasia among the groups are compared.
RESULTS
In our study, among the overall population, 330 children tested positive for H. pylori, which constituted 55% of the study population. The group denoting H. pylori positivity was found to have strikingly higher frequencies of chronic superficial gastritis (78.8% vs 5.9%), gastric atrophy (39.4% vs 7%), and intestinal metaplasia (0.9% vs 0%), as compared to the H. pylori-negative group. It is interesting to observe that there were a few but statistically significant cases of H. pylori-positive children having a family history of gastric cancer (1.2%), whereas no such cases were reported in children who were H. pylori-negative.
CONCLUSION
Our study finds that H. pylori infection in childhood is associated with an increased risk of precancerous gastric conditions and that family history might provide an additional risk. These insights recommend the necessity of early H. pylori detection and intervention and management strategies in childhood, especially in those families with histories of gastric cancer.
Core Tip: Our investigation exposes a potent correlation: Children afflicted with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) exhibit an augmented vulnerability to gastric cancer, notably when there's a genetic lineage of the ailment. This underscores the pressing requirement for preemptive diagnostics and intervention within the juvenile demographic to avert potential gastric malignancies. By highlighting the pivotal role of heredity in pediatric gastric health, our study paves the way for tailored preventative measures, enhancing clinical practices in the eradication of H. pylori and fortifying the frontline against gastric cancer in youth. This insight is crucial for the surgical community, potentially revolutionizing how we approach early cancer detection and prevention.
