The main purpose of gastric mass screening is early detection and prompt treatment of stomach cancer and ultimately, the reduction of mortality from stomach cancer.
Therefore, we must have to review the effectiveness of the screening program and the methods of gastric mass screening.
Namely, it is essential to determine whether the mass screening is realy effective and whether it is appropriate to continue the program for secondary prevention of gastric cancer.
It is most important to adjust and to analyze data after mass screening examination to evaluate the screening program and its accuracy. For example, the number of cases of stomach cancer detected by the mass screening, differences in the rate of surgical treatment, propotions of early ones to all stomach cancers detected, post-diagnostic survival rates, post-operative life, and, mortality decreasing effect of such screening.
This time, we will report the results of gastric mass survey using the data in the Cancer Detection Center of Miyagi Cancer Society.

In order to know the present state of mass survey for large-bowel cancer in rural areas, we gathered the results of colorectal screening in 1989 from 45 hospitals or cancer detection center related to agricultural cooperatives of all over Japan.
In all of the 45 institutions, method of screening was fecal occult blood test, and in most of them, the stool study was immunological, of one day, and without meal restriction. Methods of further precise examination such as barium enema, total colonoscopy, sigmiodoscopy, or proctoscopy, solely or combined, were employed depending to the facilities.
The total number of examinees were 194, 834, and 8, 523 (4.4%) had a positive reaction for occult blood. Further precise examinations were performed in 4, 351 (59.7%) examinees, and 148 cases of large-bowel cancer were detected. The detective rate of cancer in total examinees was 0.08%. Among these 148 cases of colorectal cancer, 43 cases (51.8%) were in early stage. Examinees in their fifties were the most in number, and both the rate of positive reaction and the rate of cancer detection were increased as the age gets older.

This is a report on the precision controlled gastric mass screenings conducted under the sponsorship of the Welfare Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives in Nagano Prefecture and the assessment test using some samples of radiographic stomach images.
Physicians and x-ray technicians participated in the test and interpreted in their own ways the radiographs of 30 healthy cases and 20 cases of cancer of the stomach. Experienced physicians and technicians made better scores on the test than those less experienced in reading radiographs. Physicians read a little better that technicians in checkups of different parts regardless of years of experience, but the difference was not significant. In terms of FP and FN percentages (?), physicians scored 40.5% and 20.8% on the first tryout, and 34.0% and 29.0% on the second tryout.
The 1988 mass screening found 67.4% of cancer in antral and angular areas and 23.8% on the lesser curvature side of the angular area.
Grade 5 means that “No doubt about the existence of cancerous lesions.” In the 1983 screening, 25% of the grade 5 cases turned out to be nothing wrong upon close examination. The figure went down to 5.9% in the 1988.

At institutions in 9 areas of all over Japan, epidemiological and clinical surveys and investigations have been performed on the relationship between alcohol drinking and health for inhabitants in agricultural and fishing villages. The ethanol cutaneous patch test showed about 40% ALDH2 defficiency in these subjects. There were remarkable defferences in the drinking behavior between these positive and negative 2 groups. Various factors affecting the drinking behavior of subjects are there congenital diathesis, sexual difference, natural and social differences as well as age and occupation. By drinking, various abnomalities have been observed in various indexes such as medical examinations namely, hepatic functions (γ-GTP, GOT, GTP, etc), lipids (HDL-C, TG, etc), circulating functions (blood pressure, pulse, etc), metabolisms (uric acid, blood sugar, etc), and pancreatic functions. Most of them are risk factors in adult diseases. Accordingly, through collective education for drinking, its effect can be observed earlier and it will be very important to educate individuals for health control.