Abstract
The National Cancer Center in Japan published the “Gastric Cancer Mass Screening Guideline based on effective evaluation” in April 2015. According to this guideline, the target age of gastric cancer screening was set at above the 50 years.
Screening of Helicobacter pylori- associated gastritis is very important for a gastric cancer mass survey. In this study, we divided the condition of the gastric mucosa into three groups according to the X-ray images obtained from 41,952 patients during population-based screening between April 2011 and March 2013. The three groups were “normal,” “hyperplasic gastritis,” and “atrophic gastritis.” We reviewed the frequency, discovery rate, and histological types of gastric cancer based on patients’ age groups.
The frequency of hyperplasic gastritis was 1 to 2%, and this did not differ among all the age groups. In patients between the age of 40 and 49, the frequency of hyperplasic gastritis was 1%, and the discovery rate was 3.7%. The frequency of atrophic gastritis gradually increased with advancing age. The frequency of atrophic gastritis was 16.3%, and the discovery rate was 0.23 % in patients between the age of 40 and 49.
In conclusion, it is necessary to conduct mass X-ray screening for gastric cancer in people aged between 40 and 49 years.
