Is stomach cancer contagious?

With the development of society, people's diet and lifestyle are becoming more and more irregular, which has led to a sharp increase in patients with gastric diseases, and the incidence of gastric cancer has increased year by year. In my country, the incidence of gastric cancer is highest in the northwest, followed by the northeast and Inner Mongolia, followed by the east China and coastal areas, and lowest in the central and southwestern regions. About 170,000 people die of gastric cancer each year, which is almost 1/4 of the total number of deaths from malignant tumors. In addition, more than 20,000 new gastric cancer patients are produced each year. Gastric cancer is indeed a disease that seriously threatens people's health. Gastric cancer can occur at any age, but it is more common in 40 to 60 years old, with men more than women at a ratio of about 2:1. The cause of the disease is unknown, and it may be related to a variety of factors, such as lifestyle, diet, environmental factors, genetic quality, mental factors, etc. It is also related to chronic gastritis, gastric polyps, gastric mucosal dysplasia and intestinal metaplasia, residual stomach after surgery, and long-term Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection.

Due to the prevalence of gastric cancer, people can't help but ask: Is gastric cancer contagious?

Experts point out that gastric cancer is not like other germs that can be transmitted from one person to another. Even if sexual intercourse occurs, it will not be transmitted to another person through sexual contact. The reason is simple. Cancer is not an infectious disease. It cannot transmit oncogenes into other people's bodies through any means to cause cancer. Even if cancer cells are implanted into other people's bodies, they cannot survive. Because to oneself, other people's cancer cells are a kind of foreign body. The body can kill other people's cancer cells through its powerful immune rejection ability. Therefore, it can be absolutely said that gastric cancer is not contagious. The simplest reason is that tumors are not infectious diseases. It cannot transmit oncogenes into other people's bodies through any means to cause tumors. Even if tumor cells are transplanted into other people's bodies, it is difficult for them to survive because of the existence of rejection reactions.

However, some people may ask, why do some families have more than one cancer patient? This relative clustering of cancer in the family is not caused by infection, but is mainly related to heredity and common carcinogenic factors. The so-called infection, in simple terms, is the spread of a disease from one person to another through some means.

Is gastric cancer contagious? We must first know the conditions for contagion. Contagion must meet three conditions: the source of infection, the route of transmission and the susceptible population. None of the three can be missing. Clinical data proves that cancer patients themselves are not the source of infection. Experts have conducted such experiments. Cancerous tissues taken from cancer patients cannot survive and grow when directly implanted in another person. Although it is currently believed that the occurrence of certain cancers is related to certain viruses, such as cervical cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and leukemia, it has not yet been confirmed that infection with certain viruses will definitely lead to certain cancers.

In addition, studies have found that Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection can cause gastric cancer:

In recent years, it is generally believed that Helicobacter pylori infection is related to the incidence of gastric cancer. In 1994, WHO listed it as the first category of gastric cancer risk factors. Epidemiological survey data at home and abroad show that the incidence of gastric cancer is positively correlated with the HP infection rate, and the risk of gastric cancer in HP-infected people is 6 times higher than that of non-infected people. At the same time, it was found that in areas with high incidence of gastric cancer, the age of HP infection is advanced. The infection rate of children under 10 years old in Lanzhou, my country has reached 40% to 50%, and the infection rate of children under 5 years old in Changle City, Fujian Province has reached 50%, which is significantly higher than that in low-incidence areas. Helicobacter pylori is rarely isolated in normal gastric mucosa, but as the gastric mucosal lesions worsen, the infection rate of Helicobacter pylori increases; the serum of gastric cancer patients was measured and it was found that the positive rate of Helicobacter pylori antibodies was significantly higher than that of the control group, which is a risk factor for gastric cancer. HP is involved in the occurrence of gastric cancer, and its mechanism is multifaceted. The metabolism of HP itself can produce some toxic substances, such as urea and phospholipase, which can reduce the acidity of the local environment and cause epithelial cell damage, resulting in chronic atrophic gastritis; in addition, HP infection causes infiltration of inflammatory cells in the gastric mucosa, increases oxygen free radicals and releases a variety of cytokines, leading to DNA damage and cell apoptosis. Many studies have shown that the apoptosis index of gastric mucosal epithelial cells in HP-infected patients is significantly increased. Cell apoptosis stimulates epithelial cell proliferation or causes gastric mucosal atrophy, which is the main link in the occurrence of gastric cancer. The HP infection rate in gastric cancer patients varies from report to report. In addition to being related to different examination methods and sampling populations, it may also be related to the stage of gastric cancer, pathological type, and lesion site. Asaka et al. found that 93% of early gastric cancer patients were HP-positive, which was significantly higher than healthy controls and higher than patients with advanced gastric cancer.

The above is some knowledge about gastric cancer. Expert Tips: If you have symptoms of disease, do not delay diagnosis and go to a regular hospital for treatment in time to avoid delaying the disease and causing serious consequences. If you have other questions, please consult our online experts or call for consultation. I wish you health and happiness!

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