Association of relative abundance of Helicobacteraceae in the stomach in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

Aims While Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection was associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease or Barrett´s esophagus (BE), an inverse or a neutral relationship between H. pylori infection and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) was reported.

Methods This pilot study aimed to analyze bacteriome and the occurrence of H. pylori in tissues from several sites within the gastrointestinal tract in patients with reflux esophagitis (RE)/BE/EAC. Bioptic samples from the esophageal tissues with the main pathology (EP) and adjacent tissue (E), stomach body (SB), stomach antrum (SA), and duodenum (D) from 68 patients (16 RE, 26 BE, 26 EAC) were collected. Immunohistochemical analysis (IHC) for H. pylori detection was performed in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples of SA, SB, and D ([Fig. 1]).

Fig. 1

Results There were no differences in age, BMI or smoking status among RE, BE and EAC patients (p > 0.05). H. pylori and also Helicobacteraceae (in relative abundance higher than 40%) were significantly more common in SA/SB/D samples from EAC patients than from RE/BE patients (p < 0.05). While 97.2% of RE and BE patients were users of proton pump inhibitors (PPI), only 38.5 % of EAC patients used these drugs (p < 0.01). [1]

Conclusions Our pilot results showed that the high relative abundance of Helicobacteraceae is associated with EAC, especially in patients who are not treated with PPIs.

Publication History

Article published online:
14 April 2023

• 1 Polyzos SA, Zeglinas C, Artemaki F. et al. Helicobacter pylori infection and esophageal adenocarcinoma: a review and a personal view. Ann Gastroenterol 2018; 31 (01) 8-13 DOI: 10.20524/aog.2017.0213.