Seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection in a National Cohort of Veterans With Noncardia Gastric Adenocarcinoma.

Conventional teaching is that Helicobacter pylori infection is required for the development of non-cardia gastric adenocarcinoma (NCGC) through a sequence of atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia, and finally, cancer.1-3 However, studies have not demonstrated a 100% rate of H pylori infection in gastric malignancy, hypothesized to be due to false negatives, gastric atrophy leading to apparent loss of infection, and inclusion of cardia, nonintestinal cancers.1-3.