The results of a recent study conducted by specialists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the National University Health System of Singapore (NUHS) indicate that the risk of developing stomach cancer may begin to form long before the first signs of the disease appear. According to the agency Lenta.ru, factors such as age, smoking, genetic changes, and even bacteria residing in the oral cavity influence this risk.
In their study, the researchers analyzed over 1,500 samples of intestinal metaplasia — a precancerous condition of the stomach lining, collected from six different countries. The analysis results showed that it is at this early stage that mutations accumulate in the cells, which may herald the future development of cancer. Changes in the ARID1A gene, in particular, turned out to be especially dangerous and are associated with an increased risk of tumor formation and an unfavorable prognosis. Additionally, the researchers found characteristic traces of DNA damage that are associated with oxidative stress — a process exacerbated by smoking.
