Comparison of histopathologic findings of non-tumoral gastric mucus of patients with gastric cancer and patients with chronic gastritis

Gastric cancer is the second cause of cancer death throughout the world. Identification of precancerous lesions is important for designing preventive measures. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between lesions and the cancer. Histological findings of 55 patients with gastric cancer including atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia, gastric grade, lymphoid follicles, infiltration of eosinophil and presence of H. pylori were compared with those of the patients with chronic gastritis without any tumor or ulcer. The data was analyzed using Chi-square, Mann-Whitney and Odds ratio tests. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups with respect to atrophy, infiltration of eosinophil and lymphoid follicle. The frequency of intestinal metaplasia (OR: 19/89), dysplasia (OR: 76/22) and lymphoid follicule (OR: 22/46) in the case and control groups was 47.3% and 10.9% (p<0.001), 14.5% and 1.8% (p<0.01), 81.8% and 32.7% (p<0.001), respectively. The frequency of severe and moderate chronic gastritis in control group was more than that in the case group (p<0.05, OR: 0.93). There was strong correlation between gastric cancer and dysplasia, intestinal metaplasia and lymphoid follicles. Therefore, the presence of such lesions in the gastric biopsy is alerting and these patients should be checked up regularly.