Protective Role of Helicobacter pylori Infection in Prognosis of Gastric Cancer: Evidence from 2454 Patients with Gastric Cancer

BACKGROUND: A number of studies have investigated the association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC), with inconsistent and inconclusive results. We performed a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of the association. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane and Chinese wanfang databases was performed with the last search updated on February 19, 2013. The hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were used to assess the strength of association. A total of 12 studies including 2454 patients with GC were involved in this meta-analysis. The pooled HR was 0.71 (95%CI: 0.57–0.87; P = 0.001) for OS and 0.60 (95%CI: 0.30–1.18; P = 0.139) for DFS in GC patients, respectively. The protective role of H. pylori infection in the prognosis of GC was also observed among different subgroups stratified by ethnicity, statistical methodology, H. pylori evaluation method and quality assessment. There was no evidence of publication bias. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This meta-analysis suggests a protective role for H. pylori infection in the prognosis of GC. The underlying mechanisms need to be further elucidated, which could provide new therapeutic approaches for GC.