[Screening for upper G-I tract cancer by gastroscopy in a 2,000 suspected population]

Mass screening for upper G-I tract cancer was performed by Qin's occult blood bead detector from Nov. 1986 to Apr. 1987 in Yangzhong county, Jiansu province. Of the examined subjects, 2,000 were positive for occult blood. There were 887 males and 1,113 females. The ages ranged from 23 to 75 years, 58.2% were over 40 years. Gastroscopic examinations were performed for all the positive subjects. Sixty-four patients with G-I tract cancers were discovered by gastroscopy with detection rate of 3.2%. Of these 64 patients, 19 had cancer of esophagus, 27 cancer of gastric cardia and 19 gastric cancer in which one patient had double primary cancers with 65 foci. In this series, there were 65.6% early cancers. It may be concluded that the occult blood test in cancer screening had definite value in early detection of the upper G-I tract cancer. The authors suggest that annual test with this bead detector be done for the adult male.