Eradicating H pylori seems to reduce incidence of gastric cancer, review shows

Eradicating Helicobacter pylori infection in otherwise healthy and asymptomatic people reduces the incidence of gastric cancer, a systematic review and meta-analysis published by the Cochrane Library has concluded.1

The researchers analysed all randomised controlled trials that compared at least one week of H pylori therapy with placebo or no treatment in healthy, asymptomatic people who had H pylori infection. The studies mainly used a combination of antibiotics with proton pump inhibitors. Only trials that followed …