Three aspects of chemoprevention of gastric cancer

The concept of cancer chemoprevention was proposed by Michael Sporn in 1976. Of course, this includes the prevention of various cancers including gastric cancer. Its main content is to stabilize, prevent and reverse the occurrence of invasive tumors before the tumor occurs through natural or synthetic drugs, thereby achieving a method and strategy to reduce the incidence and mortality of cancer.

Chemical prevention of gastric cancer includes eradication of Helicobacter pylori, folic acid supplementation, and the use of cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, as follows:

1. Eradication of Hp: Hp infection is an important exogenous factor for the occurrence of gastric cancer. Globally, the number of people infected with Hp is very high. Currently, Hp eradication has been widely accepted clinically, especially for people at high risk of gastric cancer, which has become a chemical prevention method for Hp-related gastric cancer.

2. Folic acid supplementation: Folic acid is the main component of chromosomes and is also necessary for phospholipid protein and DNA methylation modification. Abnormal DNA methylation is one of the mechanisms for the generation of malignant tumors. Folic acid deficiency can lead to DNA methylation disorders and chromosome breakage. Therefore, folic acid supplementation is one of the means of chemical prevention of gastric cancer.

3. Application of cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors: They can prevent the occurrence of tumors and lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer by inhibiting microangiogenesis, promoting endothelial cell apoptosis and reducing prostaglandin synthesis.