What have we learnt from gastric biopsy?

Abstract

Pathologists would claim that the most reliable information obtained on gastric diseases is pathology‐based. This manuscript summarizes the four major biopsy‐based contributions to the current knowledge of non‐neoplastic gastric diseases: (i) the in vivo definition of gastritis; (ii) the recognition of the clinicopathological patterns of gastritis; (iii) the morphological links between gastritis and stomach cancer; and finally (iv) the recent information on the possible reversibility of early or advanced precancerous gastric lesions.