Background Gastric cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, yet specific biomarkers for early detection remain elusive. The present work proposes an increase in stem cell prevalence during the progression through the Correa pathway from normal gastric mucosa (NM) to inflammation and intestinal metaplasia (IM), dysplasia (DS) and gastric cancer (GC), and identifies several stem cell biomarkers which demonstrate increased expression throughout this pathway. Methods Retrospective gastric tissue samples were obtained from a cohort of 63 patients from Colombia, a region where virulent CagA+ H. pylori infection and associated gastric cancer is highly prevalent. We measured variations in expression of stem cell markers CD44 (antibody #HPA005785, Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), CD133 (antibody MAB4399, Millipore, Billerica, MA) and Lgr5 (antibody ab75850, Abcam, Cambridge, MA) during disease progression. Samples were divided as follows: 10 NM; 17 IM; 10 DS and 26 GC. All cases were stained using the Ventana automated immunostainer Discovery XT (Ventana, Tucson, AZ). Scoring was conducted using the Allred scoring system featuring a proportion score and an intensity score to give a total score between 0 and 8. Results A significant increase in expression of all three stem cell markers (CD44, CD133 and Lgr5) was observed during each progression stage (NM to IM, IM to DS, and DS to GC). Statistical analysis of overall correlation between respective biomarker expression and disease stage is provided in Table 1. Expression increase between each individual stage of progression is demonstrated in Figure 1 for all 3 markers: CD44 (green), CD133 (blue) and Lgr5 (red). Statistical significance of increase at each stage is indicated by asterisks: p < 0.05 (*), p < 0.01 (**), p < 0.001 (***). Conclusion Stem cell dynamics as represented by common epithelial stem cell markers may allow early detection of the transition from to GC in patients at increased risk for gastric cancer. Statistical analysis of correlation between respective markers and disease stage. Marker Spearman correlation T value P value CD44 0.771 8.9828 9.148e‐13 CD133 0.818 9.3961 1.827e‐13 Lgr5 0.834 9.3466 2.216e‐13