Purpose: To develop the 2025 update to the Korean colorectal cancer (CRC) screening guidelines by systematically evaluating recent evidence, integrating domestic data, and addressing changes since the 2015 guideline revision, thereby providing an evidence-based standard for clinicians and policymakers. Methods: A multidisciplinary committee developed the guidelines using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. The process included formulation of three key questions addressing screening efficacy, diagnostic accuracy, and optimal screening age and interval. A systematic review of international guidelines and primary literature was conducted, yielding 327 eligible studies. In addition, a utility-based analysis using a Markov model was performed to determine optimal screening ages and intervals. Results: The evidence synthesis identified high-certainty evidence supporting the use of the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) for reducing CRC mortality and moderate-certainty evidence for colonoscopy. Evidence for computed tomographic colonography (CTC) and stool DNA testing was rated as very low certainty. Based on the evidence review and cost-utility analysis, the committee conditionally recommends CRC screening for asymptomatic, average-risk adults aged 45–74 years using either colonoscopy every 10 years or FIT every 1–2 years. CTC and stool DNA testing were not recommended owing to insufficient evidence. Conclusion The 2025 Korean Guidelines for Colorectal Cancer Screening present updated, evidence-based recommendations tailored to the domestic healthcare context. By conditionally endorsing both colonoscopy and FIT for individuals aged 45–74 years, these guidelines aim to improve population-level screening effectiveness and reduce the burden of CRC in South Korea.

The Occupational and Environmental Health Screening Cohort of Yangsan Korea (OEC-YK) was established to monitor long-term health outcomes in workers and environmental high-risk citizens through systematic periodic health examinations. The cohort integrates 623,402 examination instances from 105,768 participants at Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital (2012–2023), encompassing general health checkups, occupational exposure surveillance, cancer screenings, and others including asbestos-related surveillance. Examination types included general health examination (32.4%), cancer screening (20.6%), special health examination (16.2%), night-shift work examination (16.0%), chronic disease screening (4.8%), pre-placement examinations (2.1%), and asbestos-related surveillance (3.6%). At baseline, 59.0% were male and 75.5% were aged between 20 and 59 years. Follow-up rates reached 35.0% at 1 year, 31.9% at 2 years, and 3.2% at 11 years. Notably, the inclusion of systematic asbestos examinations, combined with a national asbestos job exposure matrix, allows detailed study of long-latency occupational diseases. This large-scale longitudinal dataset supports exposure-disease linkage analysis, job-exposure integration, and time-series modeling of worker health trajectories in Korea.

This review examines the challenges associated with occupational disease surveillance in Korea, particularly emphasizing the limitations of current data sources such as the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) statistics and special health examinations. The IACI system undercounts cases due to its emphasis on severe diseases and restrictions on approvals. Special health examinations, although they cover a broad workforce, are constrained by their annual scheduling, which leads to missed acute illnesses and subclinical conditions. The paper also explores the history of occupational disease surveillance in Korea, highlighting the fragmented and disease-specific approach of earlier systems. The authors introduce the newly established Korea Occupational Disease Surveillance Center (KODSC), a comprehensive nationwide system designed to gather, analyze, and interpret data on occupational diseases through a network of regional centers. By incorporating hospital-based surveillance and focusing on acute poisonings and other sentinel events, the KODSC aims to overcome the limitations of previous systems and promote collaboration with various agencies. Although it is still in the early stages of implementation, the KODSC demonstrates potential for improving data accuracy and contributing valuable insights for public health policy.

This review examines the challenges associated with occupational disease surveillance in Korea, particularly emphasizing the limitations of current data sources such as the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) statistics and special health examinations. The IACI system undercounts cases due to its emphasis on severe diseases and restrictions on approvals. Special health examinations, although they cover a broad workforce, are constrained by their annual scheduling, which leads to missed acute illnesses and subclinical conditions. The paper also explores the history of occupational disease surveillance in Korea, highlighting the fragmented and disease-specific approach of earlier systems. The authors introduce the newly established Korea Occupational Disease Surveillance Center (KODSC), a comprehensive nationwide system designed to gather, analyze, and interpret data on occupational diseases through a network of regional centers. By incorporating hospital-based surveillance and focusing on acute poisonings and other sentinel events, the KODSC aims to overcome the limitations of previous systems and promote collaboration with various agencies. Although it is still in the early stages of implementation, the KODSC demonstrates potential for improving data accuracy and contributing valuable insights for public health policy.

This review examines the challenges associated with occupational disease surveillance in Korea, particularly emphasizing the limitations of current data sources such as the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) statistics and special health examinations. The IACI system undercounts cases due to its emphasis on severe diseases and restrictions on approvals. Special health examinations, although they cover a broad workforce, are constrained by their annual scheduling, which leads to missed acute illnesses and subclinical conditions. The paper also explores the history of occupational disease surveillance in Korea, highlighting the fragmented and disease-specific approach of earlier systems. The authors introduce the newly established Korea Occupational Disease Surveillance Center (KODSC), a comprehensive nationwide system designed to gather, analyze, and interpret data on occupational diseases through a network of regional centers. By incorporating hospital-based surveillance and focusing on acute poisonings and other sentinel events, the KODSC aims to overcome the limitations of previous systems and promote collaboration with various agencies. Although it is still in the early stages of implementation, the KODSC demonstrates potential for improving data accuracy and contributing valuable insights for public health policy.

This review examines the challenges associated with occupational disease surveillance in Korea, particularly emphasizing the limitations of current data sources such as the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) statistics and special health examinations. The IACI system undercounts cases due to its emphasis on severe diseases and restrictions on approvals. Special health examinations, although they cover a broad workforce, are constrained by their annual scheduling, which leads to missed acute illnesses and subclinical conditions. The paper also explores the history of occupational disease surveillance in Korea, highlighting the fragmented and disease-specific approach of earlier systems. The authors introduce the newly established Korea Occupational Disease Surveillance Center (KODSC), a comprehensive nationwide system designed to gather, analyze, and interpret data on occupational diseases through a network of regional centers. By incorporating hospital-based surveillance and focusing on acute poisonings and other sentinel events, the KODSC aims to overcome the limitations of previous systems and promote collaboration with various agencies. Although it is still in the early stages of implementation, the KODSC demonstrates potential for improving data accuracy and contributing valuable insights for public health policy.

This review examines the challenges associated with occupational disease surveillance in Korea, particularly emphasizing the limitations of current data sources such as the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) statistics and special health examinations. The IACI system undercounts cases due to its emphasis on severe diseases and restrictions on approvals. Special health examinations, although they cover a broad workforce, are constrained by their annual scheduling, which leads to missed acute illnesses and subclinical conditions. The paper also explores the history of occupational disease surveillance in Korea, highlighting the fragmented and disease-specific approach of earlier systems. The authors introduce the newly established Korea Occupational Disease Surveillance Center (KODSC), a comprehensive nationwide system designed to gather, analyze, and interpret data on occupational diseases through a network of regional centers. By incorporating hospital-based surveillance and focusing on acute poisonings and other sentinel events, the KODSC aims to overcome the limitations of previous systems and promote collaboration with various agencies. Although it is still in the early stages of implementation, the KODSC demonstrates potential for improving data accuracy and contributing valuable insights for public health policy.

Background: This study aimed to develop prediction models for the work-relatedness of shoulder diseases through machine learning algorithms. Methods: The dataset comprised 7,270 cases of 8,302 individuals who applied for occupational diseases and received the final approval decision from the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service's Disease Evaluation Committee, which is related to shoulder musculoskeletal disorders between January 2020 and December 2021. In this study, demographic analysis and difference of approval rate by shoulder diseases were performed. Additionally, machine learning algorithms, including logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest, and the XGBoost, were utilized to construct prediction models for work-relatedness assessment. Results: The performance of each model was evaluated. XGBoost showed an accuracy of 81.64% and an area under the curve of 0.73, and random forest showed an accuracy of 84.46% and an area under the curve of 0.73. Key factors influencing work-relatedness assessment were employment period, physical burden score, gender, and age. Conclusion The application of various machine learning techniques showed high performance score, representing that it would be helpful to reduce the differences in judgment between occupational environment medicine physicians.

PURPOSE: The objective of the current study was to compare surgical outcomes and prognosis based on the longitudinal location of stomach tumors in patients undergoing curative treatment. The specific focus was on the prognosis for adenocarcinomas in the proximal upper-third of the stomach, excluding tumors in the esophagogastric junction (EGJ).METHODS: Data from patients who underwent curative treatment for gastric adenocarcinoma between 2000 and 2010 at a single institution were analyzed retrospectively. Excluding tumors of EGJ origin, data from 797 patients were reviewed—686 with distal gastric cancer and 111 with proximal gastric cancer. Clinicopathology features, tumor stage, surgical outcomes, recurrence, and survival were compared between the groups.RESULTS: Gastric cancer recurred in 136 of the patients (17.1%). Although differences were detected between proximal and distal cancer patients in the prevalence in males versus females (74.8% vs. 63.4%, P=0.020) and in undifferentiated histology (60.4% vs. 47.7%, P=0.013), the prognosis for proximal gastric cancer did not differ from distal gastric cancer. The overall 5-year disease-free survival rate was 84.9% and 81.4% in proximal and distal cancer patients, respectively (P=0.389).CONCLUSION: The prognosis of proximal cancer, excluding tumors of EGJ origin, did not differ from the prognosis of more distal gastric cancer. Clarifying the prognosis of proximal gastric cancer will require the large-scale comparison of an organized, multi-institution database.
Adenocarcinoma ; Disease-Free Survival ; Esophagogastric Junction ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach ; Stomach Neoplasms

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical diseases. However, diagnosis is often delayed due to atypical manifestations of appendicitis. Delayed diagnosis causes complications such as perforation, wound infection, abscess, and peritonitis. Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) complicated by perforated appendicitis is extremely rare and can be fatal. Herein, we report the case of an elderly woman presenting with NF of the right leg due to hidden perforated appendicitis. She had multiple medical diseases and initially complained of right leg pain for 3 days without any abdominal symptoms or signs. Her vital signs became unstable on the second day after admission. Computed tomography showed deep NF of the right leg extending from the perforated appendicitis. Emergency surgery was performed after appropriate resuscitation, but she failed to recover from sepsis and died 42 days after surgery.
Abscess ; Aged ; Appendicitis* ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Fasciitis, Necrotizing* ; Female ; Humans ; Leg ; Peritonitis ; Resuscitation ; Sepsis ; Thigh* ; Vital Signs ; Wound Infection