Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pathophysiol. Feb 15, 2016; 7(1): 97-107
Published online Feb 15, 2016. doi: 10.4291/wjgp.v7.i1.97
Role of Helicobacter pylori infection in pathogenesis of gastric carcinoma
Rong-Guang Zhang, Guang-Cai Duan, Qing-Tang Fan, Shuai-Yin Chen
Rong-Guang Zhang, Guang-Cai Duan, Shuai-Yin Chen, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Qing-Tang Fan, Henan Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang RG performed the review and wrote the paper; Duan GC conducted the review and inspected the manuscript; Fan QT and Chen SY took part in literature retrieval and analysis of the reported research findings.
Supported by The China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 200801273.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict-of-interest exists.
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: Guang-Cai Duan, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, 100 Kexue Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China. gcduan@zzu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-371-67781472 Fax: +86-371-66997182
Received: April 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 5, 2015
First decision: July 27, 2015
Revised: September 18, 2015
Accepted: November 3, 2015
Article in press: November 4, 2015
Published online: February 15, 2016
Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common carcinoma and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection causes a series of precancerous lesions like gastritis, atrophy, intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia, and is the strongest known risk factor for GC, as supported by epidemiological, preclinical and clinical studies. However, the mechanism of H. pylori developing gastric carcinoma has not been well defined. Among infected individuals, approximately 10% develop severe gastric lesions such as peptic ulcer disease, 1%-3% progresses to GC. The outcomes of H. pylori infection are determined by bacterial virulence, genetic polymorphism of hosts as well as environmental factors. It is important to gain further understanding of the pathogenesis of H. pylori infection for developing more effective treatments for this common but deadly malignancy. The recent findings on the bacterial virulence factors, effects of H. pylori on epithelial cells, genetic polymorphism of both the bacterium and its host, and the environmental factors for GC are discussed with focus on the role of H. pylori in gastric carcinogenesis in this review.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, Virulence factors, Gastric cancer, Genetic polymorphism, Environmental factors

Core tip: It is important to gain further understanding of the pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection for developing more effective treatments for this common but deadly malignancy. The recent findings on the bacterial virulence factors, effects of H. pylori on epithelial cells, genetic polymorphism of both the bacterium and its host, and the environmental factors for gastric cancer are discussed with focus on the role of H. pylori in gastric carcinogenesis in this review.