Seven out of 10 Chileans should have endoscopy to prevent stomach cancer

Every year, gastric cancer kills more than 3,000 people in Chile, making it one of the leading causes of malignant tumor death in the country.

The mechanisms involved in its development and potential treatments will be one of the main topics at the 46th Annual Congress of the Chilean Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The event brought together scientists from various domestic universities and research centers as well as foreign guests.

Between 2002 and 2017, gastric cancer resulted in 76,574 hospitalizations and 51,358 deaths in Chile, with the average age of the deceased being 70.5 years old, according to the Department of Statistics and Health Information of the Chilean Ministry of Health.

65% of those who died were male (34,139). In 2017, 3,298 people died from the disease, with onset occurring between the ages of 70 and 80. The country’s death rate is almost 18 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in Latin America at 6.6.

Pathogenic bacteria

According to the Pan American Health Organization, more than half of the world’s population is infected with Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that causes chronic gastritis and, in 15 to 20 percent of cases, peptic ulcers, MALT lymphoma (mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue), and gastric cancer .

The latter causes more than one million deaths worldwide, 90% of which are secondary to infection and are responsible for cases of iron and vitamin B12 deficiency anemia and immune thrombocytopenia.

Andrew Quest, director of the Center for Movement Research, said: “In Chile, the prevalence of this bacterium is higher, reaching 70% of the population, and although the proportion that later develops intestinal-type gastric cancer is smaller, it is not Trivial.” , Metabolism and Cancer (CEMC).

“Whether a person develops cancer may be influenced by genetic predisposition as well as environmental, health and dietary factors. Regardless, there are several factors that are not yet clearly defined and favor the development of the disease,” he added.

The academic believes people can become infected at any time in their lives, although this often occurs in childhood.

“Those living in poorer social and economic conditions are most at risk due to poor sanitation and more unstable health systems. It is even possible to become infected through feces, which somehow comes into contact with water or food and thus comes into contact with humans,” he insisted.

Once a person is infected with H. pylori, the bacteria can persist for up to thirty or forty years until they develop stomach cancer. “During this time, the microorganisms are causing damage, and although it may be small, the cumulative damage leads to the development of cancer in some way,” the scientist said.

Is there any solution?

The current solution is to eliminate the bacteria through antibiotics. “But before that, we have to know if the person is carrying Helicobacter pylori, which requires an endoscopy, which is a test designed to look at the esophagus, stomach and duodenum areas. “This is a test aimed at The study of pathologies that cause problems in the upper gastrointestinal tract. “

“The key is that this is a very invasive technique. Also, in Chile, given that 70% of the population has H. pylori, almost everyone or at least about 14 million people have to be tested. So for 70% of the population Carrying out endoscopy is not something that health systems can resist,” said the director of CEMC.

Regarding the use of antibiotics, Quist said that treatments are very aggressive and increasingly less effective “because in Chile these drugs are taken in an irrational or intermittent manner, without strict adherence to medical prescriptions,” and the choice of antibiotics is increasingly More resistant bacteria. “

In Japan, where the incidence of this type of cancer is high, a large portion of the population undergoes endoscopy. If H. pylori is detected, the patient is treated with medication, but this requires the allocation of significant resources.