Worldwide, gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with almost two-thirds of all cases occurring in developing countries. Each year an estimated 933,300 new cases and 700,000 deaths occur worldwide. The incidence is highest in Japan, China, South America, and Eastern Europe.
Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection, a bacterium classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, is the leading risk factor and estimated to be responsible for approximately 40% of all gastric cancers. In the U.S. and other industrialized countries, the decrease in gastric cancer incidence has mirrored the decline in Hp prevalence and suggests that prevention or treatment of the infection can reduce the burden of disease in countries such as China, where 42% of the world's gastric cancer cases occur and 70% of the population are infected with Hp.
Our work in the area of gastric cancer includes:
-
undefined undefined undefined undefinedleveraging available data to develop a natural history model of gastric cancer and calibrating it to epidemiologic data in China and Colombia.
-
evaluating the clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of Hp screening in China and estimating how changes in the prevalence of Hp infection and smoking will impact future gastric cancer incidence there.