Environmental Factors in Etiology of Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Among all the cancers Gastric cancer has been reported to be a highly prevalent malignancy In Kashmir valley, constitutes about 30%-40% of all malignancies. Cancer is consistently considered as significant environmental issue besides other etiological factors. In our study the incidence ratio among genders remained 3:1(male to female). More incidents were found in 60-64 years of age, 34.5% patients reported weight loss and the weight difference was about 10kg from stage I to Stage IV, 62% of the patients were illiterate, 59.5% of patients were from poor and middle class and 51% patients had faced the Water pollution. Major portion 53 %of patients belongs to farmers& house wives among these 38.6%, 12.2%, 8.4%, 21.6%& 18.8% had exposure to Pesticides/insecticides, Fungicides, Chemicals, Fertilizer, Manure respectively. At the time of diagnosis patients presented with multiple symptoms like dyspepsia 76.5%, loss of appetite 35.5% and vomiting 42.0%. On physical examination, anaemia was the most common sign and was present in 163 81.5%, ascites was 11.1%, epigastric mass in 9.9% Regarding distribution of cancer within the stomach, distal stomach was involved in 45.5%, proximal stomach in 42.0% of patients; Middle stomach and Whole stomach were involved in 6.0% each. Among the common symptom, ulceroproliferative type was seen in 35.5%, ulcerative lesions were 30% and infiltrative were in 7.0 %.Various perceptible effects during our study provides significant evidence to conclude that in gastric cancer etiology, environment plays an important role.