Gastrointestinal Cancer as a Socioeconomic Indicator

In 80 years ago gastric cancer was the leading cause of cancer death among men and the 3rd cause of cancer death among women in the United States of America. During the past several decades there has been a dramatic decrease in the gastric cancer incidence and death rate in the United States and other western industrialized countries, even in some industrialized and developed countries such as Japan in the other part of the world. In these countries the survival rate increased. For example 5 year survival in United States increased from 15% to 22% since 1975 till 2007. Even in the developed countries, Gastric cancer has a higher incidence in lower socioeconomic status group. The prevalence of gastric cancer is related to environmental risk factors rather than gastric features. In Iran as a low economic country, gastric cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both sexes and most prevalent malignancy in men. The distribution of gastric cancer in Iran is related to geography, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. In Isfahan as a developed province, it is the 4th cause of cancer for men and 8th cause for women. Although in Zanjan provenance it is the first cause of cancer and cancer related death in both sexes. The 5 year survival rate for gastric cancer in Iran estimated 12.8%. With this feature of disease in Iran, the socioeconomic status should be in more consideration in preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures. Hope this lethal disease becomes a significant activity in the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (NCCCP) in the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOH & ME).