Abstract
In addition to barium swallow, the health screening center of our hospital has started meansuring serum pepsinogen (PG) levels in the stomach cancer screening tests since 1998 if patients wish to receive the PG test. During the past five years, 94 gastric cancer cases were detected by both methods. The average detection ratio worked out at 79.8% for the barium method and 71.3% for the PG method. Of the 94 cases, 51.1% tested positive by both methods. The positivity ratio was 28.7% for the barium method alone and 20.2% for the pepsinogen method alone. In other words, it follows that nearly half of the cancer cases have been picked out by either of the two techniques. Therefore, it could be said that the two methods serve as complementary one to the other. Thus, it was confirmed that using the PG method together with the barium method is worthwhile.
The hitting ratio of positive reaction was high in patients at level 2 and upward when checked according to PG levels, and in patients whose initial test results were negative and later shifted to level 2 or level 4 with the lapse of time. These findings suggest that it is feasible to presupposed a group of people at higher risk for developing gastric cancer.
