Song M, Camargo MC, Katki HA, et al. - With the waning prevalence of Helicobacter pylori, autoimmune-driven gastric cancer (GC) could explain the recent increase of GC incidence among the younger women.

• This cohort study included 529 female matched pairs from the Finnish Maternity Cohort and 457 male matched pairs from the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study, to investigate whether an association exists between autoantibodies to gastric mucosa and GC.

• An association between prediagnostic seropositivity to antiparietal cell antibodies and an increased risk of GC was found in young women born in 1938 through 1989 during a median of 17 years follow-up but not in older men born in 1916 through 1939 during a median of 11 years observation.

• The magnitude of association was identified to be stronger in Helicobacter pylori–seronegative females and most pronounced for tumors in the corpus.

• Findings show that autoantibody positivity could reflect subclinical autoimmune gastritis in younger females.