Abstract
We reported that the examinees of Groups B, C, and D who had undergone the ABC classification system for gastric cancer risk assessment should be encouraged to do a follow-up endoscopic examination 3 years later. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether the recommendation of a follow-up endoscopic examination 3 and 4 years later for the examinees is effective. We enrolled subjects who had been classified as Group B, C, or D in the ABC classification system in 2011 and 2012. We randomly selected 345 and 297 examinees for recommended and non-recommended groups, respectively, and we encouraged the former group to undergo a follow-up endoscopic examination in 2015. We evaluated the endoscopic examination rate after encouraging a follow-up endoscopic examination for 147 examinees in 2011 and 122 in 2012, who agreed at the time of follow-up surveillance 5 years later. There was no significant difference between the recommended group and the non-recommended group at 46.2% (91/197) and 39.7% (77/194), respectively. Even in Groups B, C, and D, there was no significant difference in the rates of follow-up endoscopic examination between the recommended group and the non-recommended group. Therefore, we concluded that encouraging examinees to undergo a follow-up endoscopic examination 3 and 4 years later was not effective. We consider that the examinees in Groups B, C, and D should undergo endoscopic examinations immediately after the classification and the encouragement for endoscopy should be given only when the first ABC classification has been made.
