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02 May 2008
The prompt treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections reverses damage to the lining of the stomach that can lead to cancer, new research suggests.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a new mouse model of gastritis and stomach cancer to study the effects of treating and eliminating H. pylori at different stages of progression from gastritis, an inflammation of the mucous membrane layer of the stomach, to development of gastric cancer.
Stomach cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and approximately half of the world's population is infected with H. pylori.
"We concluded that H. pylori eradication prevented gastric cancer to the greatest extent when antibiotics were given at an early point of infection, but that eradication therapy given at a later time point also delayed the development of severe lesions that can lead to cancer," said the study's lead author, James G Fox, DVM, professor and director of the Division of Comparative Medicine at MIT.
The study involved developing genetically modified transgenic or "INS-GAS" mice that over-expressed gastrin, a hormone that controls secretion of gastric acid by the stomach's parietal cells.
Insulin-gastrin (INS-GAS) transgenic mice are engineered to over-express the hormone gastrin (a condition known as hypergastrinaemia), which controls the secretion of gastric acid in the stomach.
As the animals aged, parietal cells in INS-GAS mice stopped producing gastric acid and underwent precancerous changes and by 20 months of age, the mice spontaneously developed invasive gastric cancer.
Infection by H. pylori and progression to gastric cancer was accelerated in these mice, researchers discovered.
The mice were then treated with antibiotics and researchers looked for cellular changes. They found that, at every stage of advancing infection, mice that were treated with antibiotics had less severe disease.
Treating mice that were eight weeks post-infection reduced risk of developing cancer to the same level seen in uninfected mice. But using antibiotics at 12 and 22 weeks post-infection did not reverse the damaging changes.
"This shows early intervention provides the maximum benefit." Professor Fox said.
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