Dear Dr. Nikola,
Please use more discretion in your replies to enquiries from persons whose history is unknown to you. In this case, "Keltie/Sheltie", who happens to be my sister, is extremely anxious concerning this subject. She suffers from OCD and has spent the last year researching intestinal metaplasia. She is convinced that a biopsy indicating the presence of some metaplasia in her gastric antrum was, in her words, "a death sentence". Your quoting of uncorroborated statistics out of context has sent her spiraling into yet another round of panic. She is now convinced that she is doomed to die a horrible death due to gastric carcinoma.
Among the terms that are vague or out of context I would cite:
- "history of prolonged" - how long?
- "6-fold increase" - relative to what incidence in the general population?
- "some studies" - how many, how reliable?
- "5% of people" - what is the relative incidence of type-3?
As you are aware, medical science does not yet have a definitive model of gastric carcinoma, nor even reliable statistics on co-occurrence of related conditions. Such uncertainty only exacerbates obsessive thinking.
Respectfully,
David Maulsby