New Research on Cancer Investigates the “Asian Paradox”

Even though the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified the H. pylori also known as Helicobacter pylori a definite carcinogen, debates regarding the fact that there is a small number of people who develop malignant gastric tumors are under way. Furthermore, in Asian states like Indonesia, China, Japan and Thailand, for example, in which the infections with the Helicobacter pylori record slightly different rates, there exists a great difference related to the way the gastric malignant tumors develop and evolve. This situation is known as the “Asian paradox”.

An investigation set up on the “Asian paradox” was released in the World Journal of Gastroenterology in this year`s October edition. The investigation was led by medical doctor Murdani Abdullah who activates in the Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine within the University of Indonesia. The research started from an earlier concept developed by P. Correa. This is concerned with the fact that there are some changes in the mucosa triggered in a cascade manner which are triggered either by acute or chronic gastritis and develop into gastric malignant tumors.

The variations in the way Helicobacter pylori affects the gastric tract and produces gastritis might provide the explanations of the variety of gastric malignant tumors incidence between Japan and Indonesia, for example. Earlier research never took a closer eye at these transformations of the gastric mucosa which later developed into gastric cancer.

The recent investigation strives to observe the changes that occur in the gastric mucosa at the time when it is infected with Helicobacter pylori and develops gastric malignant tumors. The transformations of the gastric mucosa were observed in two Asian countries that present the “Asian paradox”: Japan and Indonesia.

Starting with the year 1998, 42 sick people from the Yamanashi Medical University Hospital located in Koufu and 125 patients from the Metropolitan Medical Centre Hospital located in Jakarta were enrolled for the period of one year (the duration of the research). Out of this investigation, it has been discovered that there is a complex variation in the activity and degree of the transformations that occurred in the gastric mucosa among the Japanese and Indonesia patients who underwent the study and tested positive for Helicobacter pylori. These discoveries may mean that the Indonesian and the Japanese population affected by the Helicobacter pylori infection present different responses to the infections.

The scientists who underwent this investigation think that agents that appear and affect people`s way of living and their genetic history are essential elements that trigger the “Asian paradox”. However, further researches need to be done in order to gather more information and knowledge about this matter and thus, to better understand the variations in patients suffering from infections with the Helicobacter pylori.