The gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma (GCA) is a very rare disease. In recent decades, however, the incidence of the GCA has increased dramatically in many Western countries. An increasing trend in GCA is also observed in municipal regions but not in rural regions of China. Another striking feature is the strong male predominance among patients with GCA. Some of the reasons above are still unclear and require further epidemiological investigations.
A research article published on November 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. A research team from Taiwan investigated the etiologic factors shared by lifestyles, diet, and other environmental exposures associated with GCA among men in Taiwan. They additionally investigated the association with H. pylori infection.
They found working or exercising after meals, and H. pylori infection may increase the risk of GCA. Moreover, the interactive effect between working or exercising after meals and H. pylori infection augments the risk while rice as principal food and higher intakes of fresh vegetables and fruits may well reduce the risk.
Their results suggest that healthy dietary habits to avoid the chronic exposure to higher and provocative gastric acidity and eradication of H. pylori are important for the GCA prevention. Daily intake of fresh vegetables, fruits and rice as principal food should be encouraged for the beneficial effect to prevent GCA.
Reference: Chen MJ, Wu DC, Lin JM, Wu MT, Sung FC. Etiologic factors of gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma among men in Taiwan. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(43): 5472-5480
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/5472.asp
Correspondence to: Dr. Fung-Chang Sung, Institute of Envir¬onmental Health, China Medical University, 91, Hsueh Shih Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan, China. fcsung@mail.cmu.edu.tw
Telephone: +886-4-22035740 Fax: +886-4-22019901
About World Journal of Gastroenterology
World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
World Journal of Gastroenterology