Journal of Carcinogenesis & Mutagenesis

Abstract

Gastric Cancer: Environmental Risk Factors, Treatment and Prevention

Ahmed Al Saghier, Juma H Kabanja, Sehar Afreen and Mohamed Sagar

Gastric Cancer is a heterogeneous, multifactorial, aggressive disease that has been and still remains one of the most common causes of cancer-related death and a major public health issue worldwide. Currently, gastric cancer shows decreasing trends in its incidence and mortality in some geographic areas; however the disease still shows poor prognosis and remains difficult to cure. The prognosis for patients with gastric cancer depends on the stage at which the gastric cancer is detected, and complete excision of the cancer is the only proven curative option. However, recently the treatment of gastric cancer has been rapidly evolving with the emergence of new cytotoxic drugs and molecular targeted agents that show promising response rate and disease progression-free survival. Cancer prevention intervention such as screening to ensure early detection, population health education, anti-cancer knowledge popularization, identification and correction of unhealthy lifestyles has demonstrated to be effective; and improved treatment modalities can dramatically increase the poor prognosis for patients with gastric cancer. Demographic, ecological, environmental, culture, and genetic variables all contribute to the heterogeneity of gastric cancer; however, environmental risk factors play an important role throughout all the stages of the disease progression, management and surveillance. In this review, we address the role of important environmental risk factors in the onset of gastric cancer, and highlight the current treatments modalities and prevention measures for gastric cancer.