Abstract
The quality of mass screening for gastric cancer was evaluated among the medical facilities providing mass screenings in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. In 2004, 96 municipalities entrusted the screening to 16 medical facilities in the prefecture. Among these, the data from for 7 medical facilities which had been entrusted with the mass screenings by 74 municipalities was available for evaluation. The data for the evaluation were provided by The Gastric Mass Survey Committee of the Fukuoka Area. The quality of mass screening in individual medical facilities was graded according to two indicators: the positive predictive rate and the follow-up rate for screening abnormalities. The grading was done as follows: quality A: both indicators are above average; quality B: one of the two indicators is below average; quality C: both indicators are below average. The average of 10 medical facilities was used for the grading. Of 74 municipalities, 38 entrusted the mass screenings for gastric cancer to 2 quality-A medical facilities, while the remaining 36 entrusted the mass screenings to 6 quality-B or-C medical facilities. Therefore, it is suggested that the cancer detection rate may be lower in at least 36 municipalities where the gastric cancer screenings were entrusted to low-quality medical facilities. Recently, some municipalities have been shifting from high-quality medical facilities to low-cost and low-quality facilities for the screenings. This may deteriorate the detection rate of gastric cancer during screenings for the general population in the prefecture.
