Premium
Helicobacter pylori and the risk of benign and malignant biliary tract disease
Author(s) -
Bulajic Milutin,
Maisonneuve Patrick,
SchneiderBrachert Wulf,
Müller Petra,
Reischl Udo,
Stimec Bojan,
Lehn Norbert,
Lowenfels Albert B.,
Löhr Matthias
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.10893
Subject(s) - medicine , helicobacter pylori , biliary tract , gastroenterology , disease , biliary disease , biliary tract cancer , cancer , gemcitabine
BACKGROUND The etiology of tumors arising in the biliary tract remains unclear. Several previous studies have detected Helicobacter pylori organisms in bile from patients with gallstones or cholecystitis. The objective of this study was to determine whether there is an association between H. pylori in bile and biliary tract carcinoma. METHODS The authors used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays to detect the presence of H. pylori in the stomach and bile from 89 patients: Sixty‐three disease free patients had biliary calculi, 15 patients had carcinoma of the biliary tract, and 11 patients had neither gallstones nor carcinoma. Bile was considered to contain H. pylori only if the results of PCR determinations were positive in two or more samples assayed independently in two separate laboratories. RESULTS There was a strong association between the presence of H. pylori in the stomach and in the bile ( P ≤ 0.01). Biliary H. pylori was associated with age but not with gender, and it was associated strongly with the clinical diagnosis. Patients with gallstones were 3.5 times as likely to have H. pylori in the bile compared with patients in a control group (95% confidence interval [95%CI], 0.8–15.8; P = 0.100), and H. pylori was 9.9 times more frequent in patients with biliary tract carcinoma compared with patients in the control group (95%CI, 1.4–70.5; P = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS There is a strong association between biliary tract carcinoma and H. pylori in bile. If these results are confirmed by prospective studies, H. pylori may be responsible for a significant proportion of malignant biliary tract disease. Cancer 2002;95:1946–53. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10893