Patients with Helicobacter pylori -positive gastric cancer with human cytomegalovirus infection have a low tendency of advanced lymphatic metastasis in a Chinese population

Recognized as a group I carcinogen for gastric cancer (GC) and a factor involved in the development of GC, serves a major part in GC research. However, most studies have focused on itself, ignoring the complicated pathogenic microbiological environment of GC and neglecting the synergistic or antagonistic effects of with other pathogenic microorganisms. Increasing evidence has revealed that the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is present in several types of tumors and serves an important role in the neoplastic process of certain human malignant tumors, including GC. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of HCMV and co-infection in GC. HCMV and infection was analyzed in paired gastric tumor and peri-tumoral tissues from 134 (98 male and 36 female) patients using PCR. The results revealed that a total of 74 (55.2%) patients had infection, 58 patients (43.3%) had HCMV infection, and 34 (25.4%) patients had both HCMV and infection. Univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that infection was independently associated with advanced lymphatic metastasis [P=0.007; odds ratio (OR)=3.51]. Furthermore, compared with HCMV / , neither HCMV / nor HCMV / were associated with metastasis, but HCMV / co-infection status was an independent risk factor for advanced lymphatic metastasis (P=0.005; OR=6.00). In conclusion, GC co-infected with HCMV and exhibited a low tendency of lymph node metastasis. HCMV may interact with to inhibit the process of lymphatic metastasis, and the mechanism requires further investigation.