Clinicopathological findings in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma with familial aggregation

The clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer (GC) with a positive family history of site-specific GC have not been well discussed. The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of familial aggregation of GC in a hospital-based case-control study and to analyze the clinicopathological characteristics of GC with familial aggregation of GC.

Our series was comprised of 926 histologically confirmed patients with GC (588 males and 338 females) and 2,052 non-cancer outpatients between 1985 and 1996. The odds ratios (ORs), as estimators of relative risks, together with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for a family history of GC and for a family history of other cancers were calculated. Moreover, the clinicopathological findings of patients with GC who had a GC family history were compared with those of patients with GC who had no GC family history.

A positive family history of GC was associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of GC (OR = 2.15; 95% CI = 1.77-2.63), while no association was observed between the risk of GC and a family history of other cancers (OR = 1.11; 95% CI = 0.91-1.36). The incidence of a multifocal occurrence of GCs was higher in patients with a family history of GC (19.4%) than in patients without a family history of GC (12%, p = 0.005). The risk (OR) of occurrence of multiple cancers in the stomach in patients who had a family history of GC was 1.77 (95% CI = 1.19-2.64).

Our results suggest that a family history of GC seemed to be a risk factor for the development of GC. Further, a family history of GC was found to be associated with a multifocal occurrence of GC.