Gastric carcinoma: preliminary data of a cooperative program for early diagnosis

The results of a program of early gastric cancer detection, carried out in the Oncologic Institutes of Genoa, Forlì and Florence, are evaluated. General practitioners screened subjects, according to possible anamnestic and clinical risk indicators (age, family history, previous gastric lesions, digestive complaints, etc.). The diagnostic consisted of medical examinations, endoscopy with cytology and/or directed biopsy, and possibly air contrast barium X-ray. Of 3,180 subjects examined, 224 had gastric cancers (7 %), 29 of which were early cancers, and 688 had high risk lesions; 1,478 cases of other pathology were detected. The authors stress that the proportion of early cancer is clearly higher than that found in routine diagnosis, yet still lower compared to the results of screening programs carried on the general population. Moreover, the high diagnostic sensitivity of each method in early gastric cancer detection and, on the other hand, the difficulties in the detection of high risk lesions, which require systematic multiple biopsies, are emphasized.