Clinicopathological Findings in Patients with Gastric Adenocarcinoma with Familial Aggregation

Abstract

Background/Aims: The clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer (GC) with a positive family history of site-specific GC have not been well discussed. The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of familial aggregation of GC in a hospital-based case-control study and to analyze the clinicopathological characteristics of GC with familial aggregation of GC. Methods: Our series was comprised of 926 histologically confirmed patients with GC (588 males and 338 females) and 2,052 non-cancer outpatients between 1985 and 1996. The odds ratios (ORs), as estimators of relative risks, together with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for a family history of GC and for a family history of other cancers were calculated. Moreover, the clinicopathological findings of patients with GC who had a GC family history were compared with those of patients with GC who had no GC family history. Results: A positive family history of GC was associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of GC (OR = 2.15; 95% CI = 1.77–2.63), while no association was observed between the risk of GC and a family history of other cancers (OR = 1.11; 95% CI = 0.91–1.36). The incidence of a multifocal occurrence of GCs was higher in patients with a family history of GC (19.4%) than in patients without a family history of GC (12%, p = 0.005). The risk (OR) of occurrence of multiple cancers in the stomach in patients who had a family history of GC was 1.77 (95% CI = 1.19–2.64). Conclusions: Our results suggest that a family history of GC seemed to be a risk factor for the development of GC. Further, a family history of GC was found to be associated with a multifocal occurrence of GC.

Family history and the risk of gastric cancer

“…The lowest reported OR in Japan was 1.5 (95% CI 1.2 -1.8), based on a large study on 614 cases and 2444 hospital-based controls by Minami et al (2003). Ikeguchi et al (2001) studied 2025 cases of gastric cancer and 926 hospital-based controls. The familial OR was approximately 2 (RR ¼ 1.9; 1.6 -2.2).…”

Comparison of patients by family history with gastric and non-gastric cancer

“…Some studies, although not all, showed that a family history of GC might be considered a stronger risk factor for women [2,3] , or that risk of GC might be higher for subjects with an affected sibling rather than a parent [13,15,16,21] . The risk of GC associated with family history for non-GC has been found with different cancers in different studies [5,10,15,21] . In addition, the histological type of FGC was pronounced for "intestinal" and/or "diffuse" cancers in different studies germline mutation of CDH1, has never been found in eastern Asia [8] .…”

“…Family history of GC has previously been studied in many regions, including eastern Asian [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] , North American [10][11][12] , northern European [13][14][15] , and Mediterranean countries [16][17][18][19][20][21] . A much higher incidence of familial GC (FGC) was reported from Mediterranean countries [19] , while a relatively low occurrence was noted in northern European countries [14] .…”

Family history of cancer and stomach cancer risk

“…Some studies found that a family history of stomach cancer was a stronger risk factor for women, 8,12,22,25 although the evidence is not consistent. 16 In some, 7,16,24 but not all 4,9,14 studies, the risk was higher for subjects with an affected sibling rather than a parent.…”

“…Furthermore, the epidemiologic evidence is not consistent on the variation of familial risk according to the age at onset of gastric cancer. 8,11,14,16,22 Only a few studies have investigated the association of family history of other cancers and risk of stomach cancer, and yielded contrasting results. 2,[5][6][7]10,14,15 Associations have been reported with a family history of cancers of the breast, 15 brain/central nervous system, 2,6 female genital, 2,6 esophagus, 2 thyroid 2 and colon.…”