Evaluation of risk factors for gastric cancer.

ABSTRACT

Gastric cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies and remains an important cause of mortality. Several factors are suspected to play a role in gastric carcinogenesis which include diet, genetic factors, and infectious agents .In this study we evaluated the association between few epidemiological factors and gastric cancer risk .We have included 94 gastric cancer patients and 100 healthy age and sex matched controls in the study . Methods: Evaluation of association was based on frequency distribution of epidemiological variables in control and cancer groups. Results: Among the various factors analysed smoking (15.136; p<0.01) and alcohol consumption were found to be significantly associated (5.966 ; p<0.05) with gastric cancer. Conclusions: We conclude that smoking and alcohol consumption increase the risk of gastric cancer among the Indian population.