Predisposed to Trouble: Gene variants implicated in stomach cancer
By Nathan Seppa
Over the past 20 years, as scientists have established that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes ulcers, they’ve also linked the microbe to stomach cancer. A new study suggests that a person’s risk of this malignancy can depend on the genetics of both the individual and the bacterium.
Scientists in Portugal report that among people with an H. pylori infection, those who carry certain variants of genes in the microbe and in their own cells face a substantially higher risk of stomach cancer than do people without these variants. The study appears in the Nov. 22 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.