Family history of malignant neoplasm and its relation with clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer patients

BACKGROUND Few studies to date have evaluated gastric cancer(GC)-related malignant neoplasm family history (MN-FH), and their findings have been largely inconsistent. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of MN-FH and its relation to the clinicopathologic features of GC. METHODS A total of 104 hospitalized patients with primary gastric adenocarcinoma was prospectively analyzed from 2008 to 2009. Positive MN-FH was defined as MN-affected first- and second-degree relatives of the current GC cases. The relation between prevalence of positive MN-FH and clinicopathologic features in the current GC patients was assessed using the Chi-square test with Cramer's V coefficient. RESULTS Thirty-seven (35.6%) of the GC patients had positive MN-FH, with 42 associated tumors in first- and second-degree relatives. Twenty-six (61.9%) of the associated tumors were located in the digestive system, including the esophagus (26.2%), stomach (23.8%), liver (9.5%) and colon (2.4%). Lung cancers were the most prevalent non-digestive system-associated tumors (9.5%). Correlation analysis revealed no significant relations with prevalence of MN-FH and any of the clinicopathologic features (all, P > 0.05), including sex (V = 0.044), age (V = 0.060) and histological subtypes (V = 0.109). CONCLUSIONS More than one-third of the GC patients in our hospital had positive MN-FH. The most frequent forms of MN-FH were esophageal cancer and GC. The prevalence of positive MN-FH was not correlated to any of the clinicopathologic features, including sex, age and histological subtypes in the study population of GC patients.