Abstract
Alterations in the immune response of patients with autoimmune diseases may predispose to malignancies, and a link between chronic autoimmune gastritis and gastric cancer has been reported in many studies. Intestinal metaplasia with dysplasia of the gastric corpus-fundus mucosa and hyperplasia of chromaffin cells, which are typical features of late-stage autoimmune gastritis, are considered precursor lesions. Autoimmune gastritis has been associated with the development of two types of gastric neoplasms: intestinal type and type I gastric carcinoid. Here, we review the association of autoimmune gastritis with gastric cancer and other autoimmune features present in gastric neoplasms.
Highlights
Immune dysregulation is believed to play a pathogenic role in the development of both autoimmunity and neoplasia, and autoimmune conditions have been described in patients with neoplastic diseases
Alterations in the immune response of patients with autoimmune diseases may predispose to malignancies, and a link between chronic autoimmune gastritis and gastric cancer has been reported in many studies
Autoimmune gastritis (AIG) is an organ-specific disease characterized by a chronic inflammation of the mucosa of the stomach that evolves in atrophic gastritis causing malabsorption of essential elements and eventually microcytic iron-deficient anemia [18] or pernicious anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency [19]
Summary
Immune dysregulation is believed to play a pathogenic role in the development of both autoimmunity and neoplasia, and autoimmune conditions have been described in patients with neoplastic diseases. Anti-dsDNA antibodies which are of both diagnostic and prognostic value in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), were reported to be present in the sera of patients with various types of cancer [6,7]; the presence of rheumatoid factor was found to correlate with poor prognosis in different types of neoplastic diseases including gastrointestinal cancer [8]. According to the Bradford Hill postulates [12] that evaluate the degree in which an autoimmune disease is conditioning a higher probability to develop a malignant neoplasm, a link has been found for rheumatoid arthritis, SLE, Sjögren’s syndrome and celiac disease in association with lymphoproliferative diseases [13,14]; idiopathic inflammatory myositis with solid tumors [15]; and systemic sclerosis in association with breast and gastrointestinal cancer [16]. We review the association of autoimmune gastritis with gastric cancer and other autoimmune features present in gastric neoplasms
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