Is Gastric Carcinoma an Infectious Disease?

Two articles in this issue of the Journal reach the conclusion that past infection with Helicobacter pylori increases considerably the risk of gastric carcinoma.1 , 2 One reaction to this interesting finding could be a desire to eradicate H. pylori as a cancer-prevention measure, although the task would be extremely difficult, since the great majority of the subjects in these studies who did not have cancer were infected with the same bacteria (76 percent in Hawaii and 60 percent in California).The difficulty of interpreting the messages of these two studies, and the potential for misinterpretation, may be aggravated by the meager . . .