Chronological Trend of Opportunistic Endoscopic Screening for Gastric Cancer and Atrophic Gastritis

Opportunistic endoscopic screening for gastric cancer was initiated in 2004 at our institute. We investigated chronological trends in gastric cancer detection rates based on individual characteristics and atrophic gastritis prevalence.

Overall, 15,081 asymptomatic individuals aged ≥40 years without a medical history of gastric cancer underwent first-time esophagogastroduodenoscopy in our institute between February 2004 and December 2017. We retrospectively investigated individual characteristics and endoscopic diagnoses by period (early period: 2004-2007, middle period: 2008-2012, and late period: 2013-2017), clarified the long-term detection rate and the characteristics of endoscopic screening-detected gastric cancer, and evaluated the relationship between gastric cancer and atrophic gastritis.

Gastric cancer detection rates in the early, middle, and late periods were 1.01% (76/7,503, men/women: 4,360/3,143, average age: 59.4 years, prevalence of atrophic gastritis: 72%), 0.69% (40/5,820, men/women: 3,668/2,152, average age: 56.8 years, prevalence of atrophic gastritis: 48%), and 0.46% (8/1,758, men/women: 1,083/675, average age: 58.7 years, prevalence of atrophic gastritis: 37%), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that male sex (odds ratio 1.92, 95% confidence interval 1.28-2.95), age ≥75 years (2.73, 95% CI 1.32-5.05), and atrophic gastritis (C1-C3: 2.21, 1.36-3.73, O1-O3: 5.36, 3.17-9.30) were significantly associated with the incidence of gastric cancer.

The gastric cancer detection rate and atrophic gastritis prevalence have decreased over time. However, continuing endoscopic screening is important, especially for those at a high risk of developing gastric cancer complicated by severe atrophic gastritis.