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Charles Marwick

JAMA. 2000;284:948.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Washington—The bacterium species Helicobacter pylori has two faces, and it's hard to tell which is more—or less—attractive. "If you have it, it's bad news for your lower stomach. If you don't have it, it's bad news for your esophagus," said Martin J. Blaser, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, at a briefing for science reporters held by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

The message is of some importance to physicians who are being urged to eliminate H pylori in patients on the grounds that its presence increases the risk of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. This risk has been well documented, Blaser said. "Persons positive for H pylori are about nine times more likely to develop gastric cancer than those without it." However, eliminating H pylori may increase the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.

AN ANCIENT ORGANISM

Although H . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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