The incidence of gastric cancer is decreasing; however, in some parts of the world this malignancy is still the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths and recent epidemiological analysis indicates that approximately 1,000,000 individuals will die from gastric cancer every year. Therefore, finding potent mechanisms of cancer prevention is of great importance, since this disease is commonly diagnosed in advanced stages. This review will provide a short update on the mechanisms of gastric carcinogenesis and will present recent data obtained from first clinical intervention studies aimed at the prevention of gastric cancer by Helicobacter pylori eradication.
Copyright 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel