Highlights from this issue
- Emad El-Omar,
- William Grady,
- Alexander Gerbes, Editor and Deputy Editors
Luminal GI
Serum ghrelin and risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma
The hormone ghrelin is produced in the stomach and has a variety of metabolic functions including stimulation of gastric acid, regulation of energy balance and control of appetite. Like pepsinogen, ghrelin may be a marker of gastric fundic atrophy. Recent reports have indicated low serum ghrelin is associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer and oesophageal adenocarcinoma but its relationship to oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma remains unknown. In this issue of Gut, Murphy and colleagues from the NCI, NIH, conducted a nested case/control study within the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention study. They show a nearly sevenfold increase in the risk of developing oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma among subjects in the lowest quartile of baseline serum ghrelin, compared with those subjects in the highest quartile of serum ghrelin. This association appeared independent of Helicobacter pylori seropositivity or serum pepsinogen concentrations, and it remained in cases diagnosed up to 10 years after baseline ghrelin measurement. These findings suggest that ghrelin may be useful as a biomarker for upper gastrointestinal cancers and may also have an aetiologic role in the development of these cancers but further work …
