It was found that H. pylori gastritis only induces slight hypergastrinemia before causing oxyntic atrophy, explaining the many years of latency between childhood infection and clinical gastric cancer. With oxyntic atrophy, gastrin is further increased (122) and hypergastrinemia predisposes affected individuals to carcinomas that mainly develop in the oxyntic mucosa (123). Here, GAST is linked to carcinoma.