{"entity":{"id":"idea-prev-hpylori-childhood-vaccine","kind":"idea","name":"A vaccine against H. pylori for children in high-risk regions","aka":[],"tldr":"A childhood vaccine against the stomach bacterium behind most stomach cancer would prevent infection for life. One trial in China showed protection; the idea has stalled.","summary":"An oral recombinant urease B vaccine showed about 72% efficacy against infection in a Chinese phase 3 in children (published 2015) but was not developed further. Propose a renewed programme of mucosal or mRNA vaccines against urease, CagA and VacA with infection-prevention and gastric precancer endpoints in high-incidence cohorts.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Prevention we already have is not deployed): Islami et al., Proportion of cancer attributable to modifiable risk factors (CA 2018)","url":"https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21440"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["gastric"],"sections":["prevention"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-prevention-adoption"],"keyPapers":["paper-islami-ca-cancer-j-clin"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"A vaccine reducing childhood H. pylori acquisition by at least 60% reduces atrophic gastritis at age 30 by at least 40% and, long term, gastric cancer incidence.","rationale":"The bacterium is a defined carcinogen; preventing chronic infection prevents the disease pathway, as HBV vaccination did for liver cancer.","test":"Phase 2 immunogenicity and infection-prevention trial in 5,000 children with three-year follow-up.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"philanthropy","cost":"large","horizonYears":12},"route":"/ideas/idea-prev-hpylori-childhood-vaccine/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"gastric","kind":"cancer","name":"Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer","route":"/cancers/gastric/"}],"section":[{"id":"prevention","kind":"section","name":"Prevention & Risk","route":"/fronts/prevention/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-prevention-adoption","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Prevention we already have is not deployed","route":"/bottlenecks/b-prevention-adoption/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-islami-ca-cancer-j-clin","kind":"paper","name":"Proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors in the United States","route":"/key-papers/paper-islami-ca-cancer-j-clin/"}]}}