Does bariatric surgery decrease gastric cancer risk?

Abstract

Background/aims: In the attempt to establish the different incidence between cancer in anatomically whole stomachs and cancer in patients who have undergone a surgical procedure for morbid obesity, a review on the epidemiology of bariatric surgery and stomach cancer and a correlation with the global incidence of stomach cancer (comparing it with the median age of patients who developed neoplasms after bariatric surgery) have been conducted.

Methodology: This was a descriptive study of the gastric neoplasms located at the gastric pouch, bypassed stomach or in the esophagogastric junction, following bariatric surgery described in the medical literature.

Results: Twenty-one cases of gastric neoplasm located at the gastric pouch, in the bypassed stomach or in the esophagogastric junction were described after bariatric surgery.

Conclusions: Bariatric surgery seems to produce a decrease in the incidence of cancer when comparing obese patients who were operated and obese patients who have not, so additional studies are needed to compare the cancer incidence between the general population and patients undergoing bariatric surgery. New studies will determine if it is necessary to focus on the early detection of pathological processes at the excluded digestive tract.