Serum gastrin levels are associated with prevalent neuroendocrine tumors in autoimmune metaplastic atrophic gastritis

Background/aims: Autoimmune metaplastic atrophic gastritis (AMAG) is a precancerous condition that predisposes to gastric neuroendocrine tumors (gNET). There exist no methods to stratify AMAG patients 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 AMAG patients, 41 (22.7%) with prevalent gNET. Gastrin levels were elevated in gNET (1859.8 versus 679.5 pg/mL, p<0.001), and gastrin titers demonstrated good discrimination (c=0.799, 95% CI 0.707-0.892) for gNET. Conclusions: Gastrin levels differ significantly between AMAG patients with and without gNET.