In many cancer science articles, the relationship between chronic diseases and cancer has been mentioned, and a small inflammation may develop into cancer in the future.
This can't help but make everyone panic, especially people with chronic stomach diseases, a small number of people will fall into the fear of cancer, worried that their gastritis will one day develop into cancer.
First of all, we must understand that the so-called gastritis does not specifically refer to a disease, but the inflammation of the gastric mucosa caused by various reasons, which is the most common series of lesions in the digestive system. Because the onset of patients is different, it is clinically divided into two categories: acute and malignant.
Not only that, due to different etiologies of gastritis, pathological changes are also different, it usually includes epithelial damage, mucosal inflammatory reactions, epithelial regeneration and other categories.
If it is costly according to the pathological changes of gastritis, it is mainly divided into three categories: atrophic, non-atrophic and special gastritis.
Clinically in China, it is true that some gastric cancer patients are developed from chronic stomach disease, but not all gastritis has the possibility of cancer. Clinically, in all types of gastritis, there is a possibility of atrophic gastritis becoming cancerous.
So the question is, what exactly is atrophic gastritis, will it definitely become cancerous?
The so-called atrophic gastritis, in the clinic, is called chronic atrophic gastritis, which is different from ordinary superficial gastritis.
It is a disease characterized by gastric mucosal epithelium and gland atrophy, the number of gastric glands in patients will be reduced, the gastric mucosa will become thinner and thinner, and the mucosa will often have thickening of the mucilage layer, with the development of the disease, patients can have pyloric gland metaplasia, intestinal gland metaplasia.
According to the data available to the clinic, chronic atrophic gastritis is actually developed from superficial gastritis, because the patient's gastric mucosal surface is repeatedly damaged, and it is not well conditioned and treated, resulting in the gradual atrophy of the inherent glands of the mucosa, or even completely disappearing.
According to relevant surveys, among all gastritis patients in China, atrophic gastritis accounts for 13.8%.
Atrophic gastritis continues to develop, and the atrophy of the gastric mucosa is replaced by epithelial cells of the intestine, gradually developing into intestinal metaplasia.
If left untreated, inflammation continues to evolve and cell growth undergoes atypical changes, or anaplastic changes. As the patient's stomach cells are repeatedly damaged and repaired, eventually the cell DNA mutates, resulting in cancer.
However, patients with atrophic gastritis do not all develop cancerous changes, and its relationship with cancer is not absolute!
Clinically in China, only a few atrophic gastritis may evolve into stomach cancer, and this probability is less than 10%, only about 2.55%.
The reason for this is that everyone's physical fitness, genetics, age, and length of illness are different, so the likelihood of each patient becoming cancerous in the future is also different.
Moreover, the development of chronic atrophy into stomach cancer is based on a foundation, that is, the patient has a long-term illness, but no disease has been found, or has not actively cooperated with the doctor for related treatment, leaving time for the development of gastric cancer.
It was also affected by genetics, decreased immune function, and persistent infection of Helicobacter pylori, and eventually became cancerous.
Therefore, people with chronic atrophic gastritis do not need excessive vigilance, what we have to do is not to be afraid of cancer every day, but to actively cooperate with the doctor to carry out gastroscopy and pathological examination, determine the nature of gastritis, and then carry out relevant treatment according to the doctor's recommendations.
However, because atrophic gastritis is a chronic disease and the treatment time is relatively long, patients cannot ignore regular review while treating. In this way, the possibility of cancer can be minimized.