Lu et al. (20) carried out methylation-specific PCR analysis to determine the methylation status of the RUNX3 in atrophic gastritis and gastric carcinoma with H. pylori, and they concluded that stepwise methylation of RUNX3 promoter mediated by H. pylori infection contributes to the initiation and progression of gastric carcinoma. The gene discussed is RUNX3; the disease is chronic atrophic gastritis.