SUMMARY BackgroundAmong Western populations, the declining incidence of Helicobacter pylori infection coincides with a growing clinical impact of autoimmune gastritis.

The role of the quantitative analysis of cfDNA as a diagnostic test is debatable, but cfDNA levels discriminate patients with more advanced stages of disease, demonstrating a prognostic relevance in patients with HCC.

SCCA-IgM is a sensitive marker of HCC in patients with cirrhosis even though lacking in specificity. The determination of the levels of the marker in HCC patients is highly efficient in predicting the patients' prognosis, identifying those with long overall and progression-free survival and the responders and should be introduced in the clinical practice.

In Barrett patients, with disease progression, oxidative DNA damage accumulates, causing telomere instability, telomerase activation, and, in a late phase, mutations in the p53 gene, thus abrogating its activity as the checkpoint of proliferation and apoptosis, and facilitating progression to cancer.