Serum Gastrin Levels Are Associated With Prevalent Neuroendocrine Tumors in Autoimmune Metaplastic Atrophic Gastritis
Andre Jove, Christina Lin, Joo Ha Hwang, Vidhya Balasubramanian, Nielsen Fernandez‐Becker, Robert J. Huang
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Autoimmune metaplastic atrophic gastritis (AMAG) is a precancerous condition that predisposes to gastric neuroendocrine tumors (gNETs). There exist no methods to stratify patients with AMAG for gNET risk. METHODS: We identified a cohort of patients with AMAG within a university health system using histopathologic and serologic criteria. We analyzed features predictive of prevalent gNET. RESULTS: We identified 181 patients with AMAG and 41 (22.7%) with prevalent gNET. Gastrin levels were elevated in gNET (1,859.8 vs 679.5 pg/mL, P < 0.001), and gastrin titers demonstrated good discrimination (c = 0.799, 95% CI 0.707-0.892) for gNET. DISCUSSION: Gastrin levels differ significantly between patients with AMAG with and without gNET.