Family history of cancer in Japanese gastric cancer patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the family history of cancer in Japanese gastric cancer patients and to investigate the clinicopathological features of gastric cancer patients with and without a family history of cancer. Four hundred and forty gastric cancer patients were enrolled in this study. The family history (first- and second-degree relatives) was investigated. The 440 patients were divided into three groups: (1) patients with a family history of gastric cancer; (2) patients with a family history of other cancers; and (3) patients without a family history of cancer. Two hundred and four patients (46.4%) reported a family history of cancer. Gastric cancer was the most frequent, with 98 patients having a total of 123 reports of gastric cancer in the family; colorectal cancer was the second most frequent and lung cancer was the third most frequent. The average ages of the group with a family history of gastric cancer and the group with a family history of other cancers were significantly lower than that of the patients without a family history of cancer. Other clinicopathological factors examined showed no significant difference between the groups. Japanese gastric cancer showed aggregation within second-degree relatives. The average age of the patients in the group with a family history of gastric cancer was the only significant factor that differed between gastric cancer patients with and without a family history of cancer.