News Release

Which intestinal metapasia is closer with gastric cancer? Simple or atypical?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Gastric cancer remains a significant problem globally. The relationship between intestinal metaplasia (IM) and gastric cancer has always been controversial. Generally IM is divided into subtypes on the basis of histochemical characteristics; however, this classification is confusing. A new classification of IM is needed in order to follow up patients selectively. A research team led by Prof Zhang of the Department of Pathology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University first proposed the classification of IM into SIM and AIM. The research project has won a Scientific Progress Award from the Board of Education, Shandong Province, China.

A research article to be published in January 21, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology lies in the novel classification of IM where IM is divided into simple IM (SIM) and atypical IM (AIM). And the data from the research indicated that AIM may be a precancerous lesion which could be a helpful indicator in the surveillance of patients clinically.

The authors regarded SIM as response to stimuli caused by the changing environment, while AIM may have malignant transformation and could be regarded as preneoplastic lesions.

The study provides important new data about the potential risk of gastric cancer in patients with intestinal metaplasia. However, it would be important in the future to investigate the expression of p53 and/or Her2Neu in a prospective study in patients with IM, to confirm that only patients with p53/Her2Neu expression in the IM have actually a higher risk for gastric cancers.

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Reference: Zheng Y, Wang L, Zhang JP, Yang JY, Zhao ZM, Zhang XY. Expression of p53, c-erbB-2 and Ki67 in intestinal metaplasia and gastric carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(3): 339-344

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/16/339.asp

Correspondence to: Jian-Ping Zhang, MD, Department of Pathology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China. jzhan3@yahoo.com

Telephone: +86-531-82169221 Fax: +86-531-88383168

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.


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