Stomach bacterium hijacks healing signals to drive precancerous changes, study finds

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Researchers at Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin report that Helicobacter pylori can hijack stomach-healing signals and reprogram the stomach lining, promoting precancerous changes. The findings offer insight into a biological pathway linking chronic infection with stomach cancer.

Stomach cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Unlike many other types of cancer, however, one of its main causes is well known: chronic infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. A team headed by Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin has revealed for the first time how such an infection reprograms the stomach lining at the cellular level, paving the way for cancer.