Age of Gastric Cancer Patients and Susceptibility to Chronic Gastritis in Their Relatives

Abstract

Kekki, M., Ihamäki, T., Varis, K., Isokoski, M., Lehtola, J., Hovinen, E. & Siurala, M. Age of gastric cancer patients and susceptibility to chronic gastritis in their relatives. A mathematical approach using Poisson’s process and scoring of gastritis state. Scand. J. Gastroent. 1973, 8, 673-679. The results of morphological examination of the gastric body mucosa of 135 first-degree relatives of 33 index patients with gastric carcinoma and of 142 randomly selected subjects of a Finnish rural population were treated mathematically as follows. Each subject was given a score number depending upon the state of gastric body mucosa (normal = zero, superficial gastritis = 1, atrophic gastritis = 2-4). The age specific prevalence curves of the random population were plotted on a scale obtained applying Poisson’s process assumptions. An age-dependent score line was then derived from these curves. Individual score numbers for both series were subtracted from this line. Thus a so-called ‘age-adjusted score’ was obtained. It appeared that first-degree relatives of younger index patients with gastric carcinoma had significantly higher age-adjusted score values than the random population and older index patients, indicating a higher risk of atrophic gastritis in the first-mentioned group. This strongly suggests the significance of the genetic component in the gastritis-cancer relationship.