Stomach Cancer

Stomach Cancer

Stomach cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide with 930,000 cases diagnosed in 2002. It is a disease with a high death rate (~800,000 per year) making it the second most common cause of cancer death worldwide after lung cancer. It is more common in men and in developing countries.

It represents roughly 2% (25,500 cases) of all new cancer cases yearly in the United States, but it is more common in other countries. It is the leading cancer type in Korea, with 20.8% of malignant neoplasms.

Metastasis occurs in 80-90% of individuals with stomach cancer, with a six month survival rate of 65% in those diagnosed in early stages and less than 15% of those diagnosed in late stages.

Less than 1 in every 50 people going to the doctor with indigestion have cancer. Out of 10 million people in the Czech Republic, only 3 new cases of stomach cancer in people under 30 years of age in 1999 were diagnosed. Other studies show that less than 5% of stomach cancers occur in people under 40 years of age with 81.1% of that 5% in the age-group of 30 to 39 and 18.9% in the age-group of 20 to 29.

For Taiwan (statistic not shown on the above map), the mortality was 11.75 per 100,000 (1996).