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Stomach (Gastric) Cancer Screening (PDQ®)     
Last Modified: 02/29/2008
Health Professional Version
Summary of Evidence

Benefits
Harms

Note: Separate PDQ summaries on Stomach (Gastric) Cancer Prevention 1, Gastric Cancer Treatment 2, and Levels of Evidence for Cancer Screening and Prevention Studies 3 are also available.

Benefits

Based on fair evidence, screening would not result in a decrease in mortality from gastric cancer in the U.S. population.

Description of the Evidence

  • Study Design: Evidence obtained from case-control studies.
  • Internal Validity: Fair.
  • Consistency: Multiple studies, large number of participants.
  • Magnitude of Effects on Health Outcomes: Fair evidence for no reduction in mortality.
  • External Validity: Fair.
Harms

Based on solid evidence, endoscopic screening would result in uncommon but serious side effects associated with endoscopy, which may include perforation, cardiopulmonary events, aspiration pneumonia, and bleeding requiring hospitalization.

Description of the Evidence

  • Study Design: Evidence obtained from well-designed and conducted case-control studies.
  • Internal Validity: Fair.
  • Consistency: Multiple studies, large number of participants.
  • Magnitude of Effects on Health Outcomes: Good evidence for rare but serious harms.


Table of Links

1http://cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention/gastric/HealthProfessional
2http://cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/gastric/HealthProfessional
3http://cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/screening/levels-of-evidence/HealthProfessio
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