Gastric carcinoma is a prime example of a malignancy caused mainly by environmental factors. While cardia carcinoma can be caused by gastro-oesophageal reflux, obesity and tobacco consumption, non-cardia carcinoma (especially the intestinal type according to Laurén) is attributed to risk factors like dietary habits with e.g. heavily salted foods as well as infection with Helicobacter pylori. This offers the chance of reducing the likelihood of gastric carcinoma by changing one’s lifestyle and by the surveillance of exogenous biological agents.
This investigation utilises the data of cantonal and regional population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) to give an overview of gastric cancer incidence according to topography and histology and to present recent incidence and mortality trends of gastric cancer in Switzerland (CH). Furthermore, we intend to investigate whether the gastric carcinoma incidence pattern differs by histologic type in the past 27 years (1988−2014).