MG7-Ag, hTERT, and TFF2 identified high-risk intestinal metaplasia and constituted a prediction model for gastric cancer

To the Editor:Gastric cancer(GC)ranks third in incidence and mortality both worldwide and in China.[1,2]Intestinal metaplasia(IM)significantly increases risk of GC so that identifying high-risk IM patients who will progress to GC is crucial.Currently,the effect of many risk-stratification methods for gastric precancerous lesions(GPLs)was minimal.Monoclonal gastric cancer 7 antigen(MG7-Ag)combined with cyclooxygenase-2 has been shown earlywarning value for the progression of GPLs.[3]The expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase(hTERT)was proven to be related to state of cell proliferation in IM tissue.[4]Loss expression of trefoil factor family 2(TFF2)from spasmolytic polypeptideexpressing metaplasia to IM may lead to a hyperproliferation and deleterious mutations.[5]We tried to construct and verify a multimolecular prediction model included MG7-Ag and hTERT and TFF2,which could identify high-risk IM patients and have early-warning value for GC.