ENDOGENOUS INTRAGASTRICAL MICROFLORA IN GASTRIC CANCER

: The aim of this prospective study was to identify the type of microbial flora and additionally to correlate the total number of microorganisms with factors such as age, tumoral area, and the pH gastric in unaffected gastric mucosal biopsies obtained during gastrojejunostomy (n=5) or gastrectomy (n=1) in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (n=15) or lymphoma (n=1) at the Belen Hospital, Trujillo, Peru, between January 1, 1996 and April 30,1998. The mean age of the patients was 54.4 + 18.3 years (range: 20 to 79 years) with a male:female ratio of 1:2,2. Fifteen of the patients (93.7%) were colonized. Aerobic species found in 7/15 (46.7%), 5/15 (33.3%) showed a mixed aerobic and anaerobic bacterial growth, 1/15 (6.7%) had growths of aerobic microorganisms and yeasts, and only 2/15 (13.3%) of the patients harbored yeasts. Gram-negative aerobic and gram-positive species were present in 4/7 (57.1 %) and 3/7 (42.9%) of the patients, respectively. In those patients who had a mixed bacterial growth, peptostreptococcus were the most common findings in 5/5 (100%) of the patients, and Helicobacter pylori was isolated only in one case. A gastric pH of 4 or more was found in 14/16 of the patients examined and 12 of them (85%) had growth of microorganisms. There was no significant statistical correlation among the pH of the gastric juice, age or tumoral area and the total number of microorganisms/gram in mucosal biopsies of the 7 cases evaluated. Antibiotic agents used as a prophylaxis in gastric cancer surgery should cover both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms, especially those patients with a pH of 4 or more.