Helicobacter pylori in primary gastric lymphoma and gastric cancer: A clinicopathologic and prognostic assessment

Objectives: Helicobacter pylori infection is a risk factor for gastric adenocarcinoma and primary gastric lymphoma. We examined whether this H. pylori infection is also a prognostic factor for gastric cancer and primary gastric lymphoma. Methods: Resected or biopsied specimens from 255 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma and primary gastric lymphoma were investigated for H. pylori status. Hematoxylin and eosin stain was used to evaluate the presence or absence of H. pylori on formalin fixed, paraffin embedded specimens. Results: H. pylori were detected in 34 of 140 patients (24.3%) with primary gastric lymphoma, while H. pylori were detected in 62 of 115 patients (53.9%) with gastric cancer. The frequency of H. pylori positivity was higher in patients with gastric cancer than in those with gastric lymphoma (p<0.001). The frequency of H. pylori positivity was different between mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue type (MALT) lymphomas (53.5%) and lymphomas other than diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (18.7%) in gastric lymphoma (p<0.001). For patients with primary gastric lymphoma, H. pylori status did not correlate with the disease free survival and overall survival (p=0.833, p= 0.503). However for patients with gastric cancer, H. pylori status did not correlate with the diseasefree survival and overall survival (p=0.392, p= 0.357). Conclusions: In our study, between gastric cancer and primary gastric lymphoma were significant differences in terms of the presence of H. pylori. However, H. pylori did not have prognostic significance on survival for both pairs. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2013; 3(2): 61-66