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Evidence suggests that Helicobacter pylori infection increases risk for gastric cancer, but does eradicating such infection reduce this risk? To address this question, investigators in Japan retrospectively reviewed data from 1807 patients (mean age, 54; 71% men) who had been treated for H. pylori infection and had been followed endoscopically for at least 1 year. Median follow-up was approximately 3 years.
Eradication therapy was successful in 1519 patients (84%). Six of these patients (0.4%) developed gastric cancer during follow-up, compared with 5 (1.7%) of the 288 patients whose infections persisted (P<0.01). In multivariate analysis, older age (>60) and persistent H. pylori infection were the only independent risk factors for gastric c…