Background: Gastric cancer ranks 4th in cancer incidence and ranks 2nd in leading to cancer-related deaths worldwide. The present study aimed to provide an updated overview of the prevalence of chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), one of the precancerous lesions of gastric cancer, in the recent 10 years and its association with Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection.
Methods: A meta-analysis of follow-up studies worldwide in the recent 10 years was performed by systematically searching in Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase.
Results: A total of 14 studies were finally enrolled in the present meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that the prevalence of CAG was about 25% in the study population, and the risk of CAG was about 2.4-fold higher in HP-positive patients than in those who were HP negative. Subgroup analyses showed that both the prevalence of CAG and the risk of CAG in HP-positive patients were higher when infection was diagnosed by histology than by serology.
Conclusions: The worldwide prevalence of CAG is still high, and HP infection remains an important risk factor for CAG. Future studies of large-scale are still in urgent need to further control the prevalence of CAG, so as to reduce the burden of gastric cancer.
Keywords: Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG); meta-analysis; prevalence.