Abstract
[Objective] We evaluated the effectiveness of gastric endoscopic screening in the elderly.
[Subjects and Methods] The study included 116 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer at the Kamigoto Hospital in Nagasaki between 1984 and 2004 and aged≥65 years at the time of diagnosis. Patients aged 65-79 years were defined as old patients, and those aged≥80 years were defined as very old patients. The details of the treatment and cancer stages were compared between patients who underwent gastric endoscopic screening and those who did not. An analysis of the life prognosis was also performed.
[Results] A significantly higher number of endoscopic screening patients underwent endoscopic mucosal resection (p=.0041) and had stage I gastric cancer (p<.0001). Only a few of these patients were inoperable (p=.0144). The 5-year survival rate after gastric cancer was significantly higher in the old endoscopic screening patients (88.9%) than in the old non-endoscopic screening patients (57.9%)(p=.0002). In the very old non-endoscopic screening patients, the 5-year survival rate was 42.7%, whereas none of the very old endoscopic screening patients died of gastric cancer during the follow-up period.
[Conclusion] Both the percentage of early gastric cancer and the 5-year survival rate were significantly higher in the old and the very old endoscopic screening patients than in the non-endoscopic screening patients.
