Effect of Gastric Cancer Screening on Long-term Survival of Gastric Cancer Patients: Results of Korean National Cancer Screening Program

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the most common cancer type in Korea. Korean National Cancer Screening Program (KNCSP) offer either upper gastrointestinal series (UGIS) or upper endoscopy biennially for adults aged ≥ 40. This study aimed to investigate the effect of cancer screening program on the long-term survival among GC patients.

Methods: A nationwide population-based cohort was constructed based on three national databases. Overall, 46,701 GC patients diagnosed in 2008 and 2009 were included in our final analysis, and they were followed-up until the end of 2019. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier analysis with the log-rank test. Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to report the hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals.

Results: A total of 18,614/46,701 (39.9%) patients died during the median follow-up time of 10.5 years. The survival rate was higher among screened patients (65.8%) than never-screened patients (49.1%). Screened patients had 53% (HR, 0.47; 95% CI 0.45-0.48) lower risk of death from GC. The HRs of GC-specific mortality was lower in upper endoscopy group (HR = 0.36; 95% CI = 0.34-0.37) compared with UGIS (HR = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.67-0.73). Screened patients within 2 years prior to cancer diagnosis had a 35% reduction in risk of GC death. The figure decline to approximately 19% among patients with interval time since last screening of > 3 years.

Conclusions: Our findings emphasized the positive effects of GC screening on long-term GC patient survival. Also, patients screened by upper endoscopy or within 2 years before diagnosis had the best survival outcomes.