Epidemiology of Gastric Cancer in the Gangetic Areas of West Bengal

There is marked geographical variation in the distribution and incidence of stomach cancer. We tried here to describe the pattern of relationships of age, sex, religion distribution, symptom profile, histological subtypes and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection with gastric cancer in Gangetic West Bengal. This study was done over a period of five years (2006-2010). The patients residing in the Gangetic areas of West Bengal presenting with upper gastrointestinal symptoms underwent UGI endoscopy. Among gastric cancer patients, demographic characteristics, symptomatology, macroscopic and histologic lesions and H. pylori status were analyzed. At confidence level 95%, "Z" and "P" value were calculated to find significance. Among 23851 patients underwent UGI endoscopy, 14106 were males, 9745 females, 17889 Hindus and 5962 Muslims. Among 462 gastric cancer patients, Male : Female 2.7 : 1, Hindus : Muslim 3 : 1, abdominal pain, indigestion, and weight-loss were commonest presentations. Antrum was the commonest site whereas ulceroproliferative type was commonest type. H. pylori positivity was 80.89% in adenocarcinoma with statistically significant relation with intestinal type. In future, our target will be to modify risk factors; it will need further demographic studies and analysis, so that we can detect it earliest.