Background: The relationship between bile reflux and gastric cancer is not defined. In order to verify whether a relationship exists, we evaluated the duodenogastric reflux and the mucosal polyamines concentration, polycation compounds actively involved in cell proliferation, in the non-operated stomach and in gastric remnant after Billroth II gastric resection, a precancerous condition.
Materials and methods: The study was performed on three groups of subjects: A) 43 subjects with slight dispeptic symptoms, never operated on; B) 54 cholecystectomized subjects; C) 38 subjects operated on Billroth II gastric resection for duodenal ulcer. Duodenogastric reflux was assessed by measuring the concentration of bile acids in gastric juice and expressed as Fasting Bile Reflux in micromol/hour. Gastric mucosal polyamine concentration was assessed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography and expressed in nmol/mg of proteins.
Results: The lowest levels of Fasting Bile Reflux (7.95 micromol/hour) and polyamines (7.09 nmol/mg proteins) were observed in subjects never operated on. The middle values were present after cholecystectomy (Fasting Bile Reflux = 18 micromol/hour; polyamines = 8.14 nmol/mg proteins). The highest values were observed after Billroth II gastric resection (Fasting Bile Reflux = 830 micromol/hour; polyamines 11.74 nmol/mg proteins) (Kruskal-Wallis test, p = 0.0001). There was a positive correlation between Fasting Bile Reflux and polyamines (Spearman's rank = 0.33; p = 0.0008).
Conclusions: High levels of duodenogastric reflux observed after Billroth II gastric resection are associated with high polyamine concentration in the gastric mucosa. Bile reflux can be considered an important causal factor of the increased risk of gastric stump cancer after Billroth II gastric resection.