Incidence, Prognostic Factors, and Survival of Gastric Cancer in Iran: A review of evidence

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most prevalent cancer and the fourth in terms of cancer-related death worldwide. The GC is the most commonly diagnosed and the most important cause of cancer-related death in Iranians. Due to the significant burden of stomach cancer in Iran, we aimed to review all articles that have been conducted on the Incidence, Prognostic Factors, and survival of Gastric Cancer in Iran and compare them with the global situation. We surveyed Google Scholar, Pub Med, Scopus, Web of Science (ISI), and Science Direct databases using the keywords of Gastric Cancer, Stomach Cancer, Gastric Neoplasm, Stomach Neoplasm, and Iran and obtained English language articles. After a two-step screening of articles, 51 out of 202 remained eligible for our study (related to Incidence, Prognostic Factors, and survival of stomach Cancer in Iran). We found that although Iran is one of the high-burden countries for GC, the incidence rate and mortality rate are very different in different provinces (up to a six-fold and thirty-fold difference in mortality rate and incidence rate have been reported respectively in reviewed articles between Northern and Southern Iran). Considering that the initial stage is one of the most important and probably the most important prognostic factors, through upper endoscopy screening, the disease can be diagnosed in earlier stages and the survival of patients can be improved. We recommend the Ministry of Health identify high-risk people according to their combination of risk factors (especially geographical region) and make a national cost-effective screening algorithm for Iran.