The Endoscopic and Clinicopathological Characteristics of Early-onset Gastric Cancer in Vietnamese Patients

AIM: To assess the endoscopic and clinicopathological features of early-onset gastric cancer (EOGC) in Vietnamese, a population with intermediate risk of gastric cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Consecutive patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma were prospectively recruited. The demographic, clinical data in each patient were collected. The location and macroscopic type of all gastric lesions suspected to be malignant were reported according to the Japanese classification. The histologic tumor type of gastric cancer (GC) was classified according to the Lauren classification. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection were diagnosed by rapid urease test and urinary H. pylori antibody test. The infection was diagnosed when at least one of the two tests was positive. RESULTS: The rate of EOGC (i.e. ≤ 40 years of age) was 16.3% (23/141). The median age of patients with EOGC was 35 (range 28 – 40) years and the male-to-female was 1:1.09. Compared to the older group (i.e. ≥ 50 years of age), the rates of positive family history, H. pylori infection and alarm features in the EOGC group were not significantly different (0.0% vs. 5.4%, p = 0.581; 73.9% vs. 66.3%, p = 0.620; and 60.8% vs. 79.3%, p = 0.100; respectively). The EOGC group had significantly higher rate of tumor extending to entire stomach (21.7% vs. 3.4%, p = 0.003); but the rate of diffuse-type GC between the two groups were not significantly different (87.0% vs. 71.7%, p = 0.181). CONCLUSIONS: Vietnamese patients with EOGC had higher rate of tumor extending to entire stomach compared to the older group. But the family history of GC, H. pylori infection and the pathological characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. Environmental factors which play important roles in the development of EOGC in Vietnam should be investigated in future study.