Abstract
A combined radiographic and endoscopic screening program for gastric cancer was introduced in Saitama City in 2009, along with the conventional radiographic gastric cancer screening program. In the combined program, examinees could choose to undergo an endoscopic examination as well. We, therefore, used data for the previous 10 years from Omiya Ward to evaluate the effect of the introduction of endoscopic screening. We compared the outcomes of radiography alone in the early part of this period to those of radiography plus endoscopy in the later part. The results indicate that the introduction of endoscopic screening enabled an increased number of examinees to be examined (from 102367 to 144880) and an increased number of gastric cancers to be detected (from 248 to 621). The detection rate for gastric cancer was 0.62% for endoscopy versus 0.22% for radiography, and the proportion of early-stage cancer was 76.6% for endoscopy versus 60.1% for radiography. We concluded that the introduction of endoscopy for gastric cancer screening might contribute significantly to improving screening outcomes.
