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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recent studies have shown an association between long-term H. pylori infection and the development of gastric, or stomach, cancer. Gastric cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, and is most common in countries such as Colombia and China, where H. pylori infects more than half the population in early childhood.

Infection with the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori may also increase a person's risk of developing larynx cancer. In a study, researchers checked for H. pylori infection in 26 patients diagnosed with larynx cancer and 32 cancer-free patients. About 73% of patients with larynx cancer had H. pylori infection, the investigators found, while 41% of those without cancer were infected with the bacterium.

This study suggests that H. pylori may be an initiator or promoter organism of larynx cancer. H. pylori could make the cells lining the larynx more susceptible to cancerous changes when they are exposed to substances known to promote cancer, such as tobacco and alcohol.

Cancer of the larynx is the most common type of cancer to occur in the head and neck. Approximately 10,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease and roughly 4,000 people will die from it in 2001.

In the United States, H. pylori is more prevalent among older adults, African Americans, Hispanics and people of lower socioeconomic status, according to the CDC. The Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (November 2001;125:520-521) noted that H. pylori infection is less common among young Americans as gastric cancer rates have decreased since the 1930s.