Health
Stomach cancer rates predicted to fall
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 3, 2007
Early-stage forms of gastric cancer declined from 1991 and 2005, and researchers expect this disease to continue its dramatic drop, according to a paper in the Aug. 14 Gut.
Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, analyzed data on the number of newly diagnosed premalignant gastric lesions from that country's histopathology registry. Atrophic gastritis declined 8.2% per year, and dysplasia in this organ went down 8.1% annually in both men and women. Intestinal metaplasia decreased by 2.9% in men and 2.4% in women. The authors wrote that they suspected this phenomenon was the result of a decrease in Helicobacter pylori infections and expected the numbers to continue in this direction.
"These findings imply that a further decrease of at least 24% in the incidence of gastric cancer in the coming decade may be anticipated," wrote the authors.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/09/03/hlbf0903.htm.