Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide (1). A new peer-reviewed study published in Helicobacter (2026) presents a validated pathway for GC risk stratification, built around non-invasive biomarker testing with Biohit’s GastroPanel® quick test NT (2).

 

Key takeaways from the study:

• GastroPanel® quick test NT biomarkers form the core of Gastrocalc, a validated risk-stratification algorithm for non-invasive gastric cancer triage. This Chilean Risk Assessment algorithm (priority scale 1–6) classifies individuals into high, moderate, and low priority categories.

• The endoscopy waiting lists were reduced by 87% during the pilot study at Santa Rosa de Molina Hospital in Chile.
• Combined with Gastrocalc, GastroPanel® biomarkers enable high- and intermediate-risk patients to be prioritized for endoscopy while reducing unnecessary procedures.

 

This article summarizes findings from the peer-reviewed study.

 

Gastric cancer is a burden on healthcare resources

Surveillance of gastric premalignant conditions (GPMC) – including multifocal chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM), and dysplasia – can lead to earlier detection of GC (3). Chronic Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection drives this progression, with an attributable risk of 75%–88% for GC globally (4, 5). As a result, GC requires interval endoscopy for surveillance.

The incidence and mortality of GC are particularly high in Latin America, where the rate ranges between 10% to 35%. In contrast, East Asian countries have a 70% 5-year survival rate owing to established screening programs. (6)

Chile is a prime example of the problem and its scope, as waiting lists can reach 2,000 patients per endoscopy unit. As a result, endoscopic access can be delayed by nearly a year, even for high-risk individuals. (7)

Read more: Chile adopts GastroPanel® technology in national cancer prevention strategy

 

GastroPanel® quick test NT as a triage tool for GC

GastroPanel® measures four serological biomarkers — pepsinogen I, pepsinogen II, gastrin-17, and H. pylori IgG antibodies — that feed into risk-stratification algorithms such as Gastrocalc. This combination helps reduce unnecessary endoscopies and direct limited healthcare resources more effectively.

The study showed a significant reduction in endoscopy waiting lists and rapid access to endoscopy for high- and intermediate-risk patients when implemented in Molina, Chile (2).

“We now have peer-reviewed evidence showing that endoscopy waiting lists can be reduced by up to 87% without compromising patient safety. Scarcity of healthcare resources is a global challenge, and GastroPanel® offers a practical, evidence-based solution to allocate those resources more effectively while improving early detection of gastric cancer”, says Jussi Hahtela, CEO of Biohit Oyj. (8)

Read more: How does GastroPanel® perform as a triage system for gastric cancer risk assessment?

 

Inside the HOPE Hp-GC Project

The HOPE Hp-GC Project is a multinational pilot programme designed for GC prevention across intermediate-to-high-incidence areas of Latin America, spanning nine countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru) (2).

 

It combines two parallel strategies:

• Primary prevention for individuals aged 30–39 — H. pylori screen-and-treat using stool antigen or urea breath testing, targeting 7,500 participants across 15 sites.
• Primary and secondary prevention for individuals aged 40–75 — biomarker-based risk stratification followed by prioritized high-quality endoscopy for high-risk individuals, targeting 9,600 participants across 16 sites.

 

The programme was modelled on established initiatives including EUROHELICAN, GISTAR and TOGAS in Europe, (9, 10) and the Matsu Islands mass-eradication programme in Taiwan (11).

Risk stratification in the HOPE programme is driven by Gastrocalc, a Chilean-developed algorithm that integrates clinical and demographic variables (age, sex, hypertension status) with the four biomarkers measured by GastroPanel®: pepsinogen I, pepsinogen II, gastrin-17, and H. pylori IgG antibodies (12).

Gastrocalc assigns each patient a priority score from 1 (highest risk) to 6 (lowest risk) and groups them into high- (priorities 1–2), intermediate- (3–4), and low-risk (5–6) tiers (2).

 

A significant milestone for Biohit and for global healthcare systems

The GastroPanel® Quick Test NT produced near-identical results when compared with laboratory ELISA across all four biomarkers (2). The findings indicate strong agreement between the two formats in this validation sample.

In validation across 866 individuals from five Chilean regions, the algorithm captured 100% of high-grade dysplasia and gastric cancer cases within the high- and intermediate-risk priority groups, along with 80.6% of OLGA III–IV cases (2).

No cases of low-grade dysplasia, high-grade dysplasia or gastric cancer were identified in the low-risk group (priorities 5–6), yielding a negative predictive value of 100% for ruling out these advanced lesions. The negative predictive value for ruling out OLGA III–IV stages was 93%, with a small proportion of advanced premalignant cases occurring in the lowest priority groups (2).

 

A scalable model for gastric cancer diagnosis

The study’s results reinforce GastroPanel®’s position as a scalable, evidence-based solution for improving early detection of gastric cancer and enabling more efficient allocation of healthcare resources worldwide.

 

Read the full peer-reviewed study in Helicobacter

Read more about GastroPanel®

 

 

References

1. Bray F, Laversanne M, Sung H, et al. Global Cancer Statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 2024;74(3):229–263.
2. Uribe J, Portillo-Miño JD, Latorre G, et al. Hope Hp-GC Project—Program Implementation for Primary and Secondary Prevention of Gastric Cancer in Latin America. Helicobacter. 2026;31:e70109. https://doi.org/10.1111/hel.70109
3. Correa P, Piazuelo MB. The Gastric Precancerous Cascade. Journal of Digestive Diseases. 2012;13(1):2–9. de Martel C, Georges D, Bray F, Ferlay J, Clifford GM. Global Burden of Cancer Attributable to Infections in 2018: A Worldwide Incidence Analysis. Lancet Global Health. 2020;8(2):e180–e190.
4. Park JY, Georges D, Alberts CJ, Bray F, Clifford G, Baussano I. Global Lifetime Estimates of Expected and Preventable Gastric Cancers Across 185 Countries. Nature Medicine. 2025;31:1–8.
5. Allemani C, Matsuda T, Di Carlo V, et al. Global Surveillance of Trends in Cancer Survival 2000–14 (CONCORD-3): Analysis of Individual Records for 37,513,025 Patients Diagnosed With One of 18 Cancers From 322 Population-Based Registries in 71 Countries. Lancet. 2018;391(10125):1023–1075.
6. Coppelli L, Díaz LA, Riquelme A, et al. Protocolized Referral to Endoscopy and Helicobacter pylori Detected in Stools Aimed to Decrease Endoscopy Waiting Lists. Revista Médica de Chile. 2019;147(11):1382–1389.
7. Biohit Oyj. Press release: A peer-reviewed study confirms the value of the GastroPanel® test in reducing endoscopy waiting lists. 21 April 2026.
8. Leja M. Where Are We With Gastric Cancer Screening in Europe in 2024? Gut. 2024;73(12):2074–2082.
9. Leja M, Park JY, Murillo R, et al. Multicentric Randomised Study of Helicobacter pylori Eradication and Pepsinogen Testing for Prevention of Gastric Cancer Mortality: The GISTAR Study. BMJ Open.2017;7(8):e016999.
10. Chiang TH, Chang WJ, Chen SLS, et al. Mass Eradication of Helicobacter pylori to Reduce Gastric Cancer Incidence and Mortality: A Long-Term Cohort Study on Matsu Islands. Gut. 2021;70(2):243–250.
11. Latorre G, Rodriguez D, Martinez F, et al. Tu1129 Combination of Low-Cost Serum Biomarkers Yield Excellent Predictive Performance for the Non-Invasive Detection of Gastric Neoplasia. Gastroenterology. 2023;164(6):989.