Abstract
This research was undertaken to clarify the incidence, means of diagnosis and therapy of cancer in adults with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID). Data were obtained from the SMID database, which was a database of all residents aged more than 20 years in 2000 of SMID wards in 74 national hospital organizations and was managed by the National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry. They were used to calculate the mean incidence of such cancers from 2000 to 2004 and this rate was compared with that of Japanese aged more than 20years. Next, we compared the incidence, age of onset and survival rate in 2004 for each primary site. In addition, doctors working in the 13 facilities for SMID who agreed to participate in this research in 2005 were asked about signs, means of diagnosis and therapy of cancer in patients attending their facilities. They collected the required data for the participants who had cancer. Seven cancer patients were drawn from this source. The overall incidence of cancer was 2.5‰ in the SMID participants and 5.9‰ in the control subjects, which was significantly lower ( p < 0.01). The most commonly affected primary organ was the testis, whereas in the control subjects it was the stomach. The incidence of cancer of unknown primary sites in patients with SMID was 17.7% whereas primary sites were clearly identifiedin all control subjects.Five of the seven patients had clinical signs. Diagnoses were determined by blood cancer markers, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasonic examinations and pathologic examination. Five patients had undergone surgery. The differences in incidence of cancer and sites of origin between persons with SMID and control Japanese subjects indicate that a specific screening system is necessary to improve the management of cancer in persons with SMID.
