The First Evidence of Hereditary and Familial Gastric Cancer in Latvia: Implications for Prevention

Background and Objective. Gastric cancer is a frequent cause of cancer mortality. The prognosis of established tumor is unfavorable due to the propensity to spread and limited treatment efficiency. Therefore, prevention has a high significance. We tested a population screening approach in order to identify families with an increased gastric cancer load for further surveillance.
Material and Methods. Population screening was performed by questionnaire reaching 76.6% of the population. Hereditary gastric cancer (HGC) syndrome was diagnosed if 3 mutually first-degree relatives with gastric cancer were reported in the kindred. Additional group (HGC2) of families with 2 first-degree relatives affected by gastric cancer was identified.
Results. The HGC syndrome was diagnosed in 0.11%, but HGC2 syndrome, in 0.4% probands. The gastric cancer frequency among blood relatives was 25.2% (95% CI, 20.6%–30.4%) in HGC, but 16.0% (95% CI, 13.8%–18.5%) in HGC2 families. The mean age at diagnosis of cancer was 56.9 years (95% CI, 53.4–60.3) in HGC and 62.5 years (95% CI, 60.1–64.8) in HGC2. The mean survival was 2.6 years (95% CI, 1.2–4.0).
Conclusions. Population screening identifies reasonable number of families with a high frequency of gastric cancer. The frequency of gastric cancer and an unfavorable course characterized by low survival justify surveillance in families with 2 or 3 first-degree relatives affected by gastric cancer. Population screening provides the age characteristics of the respective tumors in order to adjust the surveillance schedule.