Abstract
A check on the percentages of attendance age-wise at regular group stomach cancer screening in our town over the past years revealed that a steady increase is noted among the elderly inhabitants 70 years old and above but there are no fluctuations among those between 40 and 69 years old. The rate of first comers is decreasing year after year. And there is a tendency for those who came and got the cancer checkup every year to become regular attendants. The rate of receiving a closer checkup is between 80% and 90%. In other words, 10 to 20% of the people who were advised to undergo a followup examination after primary screening tests do not visit the hospital. Of those people who skipped the closer exam, two persons later got cancer of the stomach.
During the past 10 years, gastric cancer was detected in 18 examinees. The detection ratio was 0.17%, which stands on a par wiht the national average. Half of the 18 gastric cancer cases were diagnosed as progressive cancer. Stomach cancer fatality has been on the decrease in this nation, but on the increase in our town. A total of 93 people have died from stomach cancer in this town during the same period, and most of them had shunned undergoing screening tests for stomach cancer.
As our findings suggest, it is an important task for us to encourage the inhabitants, particularly younger ranks of the community, to participate in the cancer checkup program on a regular basis. Furthermore, the importance of secondary closer examinations must be hammered home to the populace. At the same time, a thorough sytem of early stomach cancer detection from primary screening to closer examinations has to be established and publicized widely.
