The detection of MYC immunoreactivity in intestinal metaplasia of individuals from three Northern Brazil populations corroborates previous studies of our group that demonstrated the presence of MYC protein overexpression only in intestinal metaplasia and neoplastic tissue from all patients with intestinal type gastric cancer, which is preceded by preneoplastic lesions [21-23], as well as in intestinal metaplasia of non-human primates treated with N-methyl-nitrosourea (MNU) [24]. Here, MYC is linked to gastric cancer.