2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Recognizes Research on H. Pylori
Australian researchers J. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall were awarded the recent Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. This discovery has led to an increased understanding of the connection between chronic infection, inflammation, and cancer. The severity of the inflammation that results from H. pylori infection in the stomach is of crucial importance for the diseases that can result. In some people, H. pylori infects the corpus region of the stomach, resulting in a widespread inflammation that predisposes the person not only to peptic ulcer disease, but also to stomach cancer. Although the incidence of this particular malignancy has decreased in many developed countries during the past 50 years, it still ranks among the most common malignancies worldwide, with over 850,000 cases and 650,000 deaths each year.