title: Effect of endoscopic screening at 1-year intervals on the clinicopathologic characteristics and treatment of gastric cancer in South Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The recommended interval of endoscopic screening for gastric cancer (GC) in a general population is 2 years in Korea. However, it has not been determined whether endoscopic screening with a shorter interval is beneficial, especially for high-risk groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 415 patients with GC were categorized according to whether they had (vigilant screening group) or not (non-vigilant screening group) undergone endoscopic screening within 1 year before being diagnosed with GC. Clinicopathologic GC characteristics of the two groups were compared. Next, the same analyses were conducted in subgroups of patients with high risk for GC including males, current smokers, first-degree relatives of GC; and patients with Helicobacter pylori infection, gastric atrophy, or intestinal metaplasia (IM).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of vigilant screening patients was 36.1%. Early gastric cancer (EGC) was more frequently observed in the vigilant screening group than the non-vigilant screening group (62.7% vs 49.4%, P = 0.009). In the high-risk factor analyses, EGC was more frequently detected among patients with severe IM in the vigilant screening group than the non-vigilant screening group (66.7% vs 35.5%, P = 0.047). In addition, more patients in the vigilant screening group had undergone endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD; 26.7% vs 0%, P = 0.008) and had stage I (84.6% vs 41.7%, P = 0.012) than in the non-vigilant screening group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Endoscopic screening for GC at 1-year intervals would be beneficial for patients with severe IM in South Korea; this method could detect EGC for which the curative modality would be ESD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Liver Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hyuk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Nayoung
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hye Seung
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Cheol Min
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Young Soo
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Dong Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Do Joong
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hyung Ho
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun Chae
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Jung
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000150:complications*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012307:Risk Factors; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D013997:Time Factors