Gastric acid
The highest concentration that gastric acid reaches in the stomach is 160 mM in the canaliculi. This is about 3 million times that of arterial blood, but almost exactly isotonic with other bodily fluids. The lowest pH of the secreted acid is 0.8, but the acid is diluted in the stomach lumen to a pH between 1 and 3.
Infectious causes of cancer
"H. pylori" causes over 63% of all stomach cancers, which corresponds to more than 5.5% of all cancers in the world. As reviewed by Chang and Parsonnet, chronic "H. pylori" infection in the human stomach is characterized by chronic inflammation. This is accompanied by epithelial cell release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNOS), followed by the assembly of activated macrophages at the stomach site of infection. The macrophages also release ROS and RNOS. Levels of 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), one of the predominant forms of free radical-induced oxidative DNA damages, are increased more than 8-fold in DNA after infection by "H. pylori", especially if the "H. pylori" are cagA positive. The increase in 8-OHdG likely increases mutation. In addition, oxidative stress, with high levels of 8-OHdG in DNA, also affects genome stability by altering chromatin status. Such alterations can lead to abnormal methylation of promoters of tumor suppressor genes.