Friday, December 3, 2010

Gastric Carcinoma


Gastric carcinoma has a high prevalence in Japan and a certain parts of China. In one area in China, it is found to be twice more prevalence than that in Japan. The disease prevalence in west is several times lower in western countries. The disease rate is also low in Japanese People who live western countries indicating an environmental association.

Due to its high prevalence, Japan has started a screening program to detect gastric cancer at early stages. The earlier we detect the cancer better the outcome. Screening in other countries is not cost effective because only few people will have the illness. Therefore it is not carried out effectively in any other country other than Japan. Due to this lack of screening programs the patients with gastric carcinoma present with end stage disease. 

The disease can be treated effectively if the disease is detected at early stages (there is no haematogenous spread, there is no involvement of irremovable organs). In these cases surgical resection of involved parts are carried out.


References:
Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery 25th Edition
Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine 7th Edition

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