Chronic Atrophic Gastritis: Pathogenesis, Diagnostic Challenges, and Gastric Cancer Risk

Chronic atrophic gastritis is a chronic inflammatory condition that may arise from long-standing Helicobacter pylori infection or an autoimmune process involving the corpus region. Chronic atrophic gastritis may lead to several clinical manifestations, beyond gastroenterology, such as anemia, neurological symptoms, and micronutrient deficiency, and it is also linked to an increased gastric cancer risk.

Since chronic atrophic gastritis is often neglected, this Research Topic will collect the latest evidence on this chronic condition, particularly its relationship with H. pylori infection and autoimmunity. This Research Topic aims to increase the knowledge regarding the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and pathogenesis of chronic atrophic gastritis, considering that, as previously reported, H. pylori-related chronic atrophic gastritis and autoimmune-chronic atrophic gastritis could be challenging to differentiate. Another focus of this article collection will be H. pylori eradication therapy in patients with chronic atrophic gastritis, describing the latest evidence in the use of endoscopy to characterize gastric precancerous conditions, such as atrophy and intestinal metaplasia, and in particular, the diagnostic performance of the electronic chromoendoscopy. Finally, it will assess the gastric cancer risk related to chronic atrophic gastritis.

Researchers, clinicians, and experts in the fields of gastrointestinal diseases and related disciplines are encouraged to submit original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, systematic reviews, case reports, perspectives, short communications as well as theoretical papers, opinions, and methods relevant to this article collection that will cover topics such as (but not limited to):

- The pathogenic mechanisms of chronic atrophic gastritis and the role of microenvironment cytokines and oxidative damage

- The diagnostic challenge of chronic atrophic gastritis between H. pylori infection and autoimmunity, considering that usually, these two conditions may lead indistinctively to chronic atrophic gastritis

- The epidemiology of chronic atrophic gastritis

- The associated gastric cancer risk of chronic atrophic gastritis, since it is a gastric precancerous condition

- Recent advances in the diagnosis of gastric precancerous conditions, in particular, the diagnostic performance of endoscopic and electronic chromoendoscopy

- More recent evidence in H. pylori eradication therapy related to a chronic atrophic gastritis background

Keywords: chronic atrophic gastritis, Helicobacter pylori infection, autoimmune atrophic gastritis, gastric precancerous conditions, gastric cancer, pathogenesis, diagnosis, epidemiology

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.