韓国と日本の胃癌の疫学的比較検討

Epidemiological Comparative Study between Korean and Japanese Gastric Carcinoma

要旨　韓国のソウル白病院の胃癌329例の発見年齢，中村の公式で推定した胃癌発生年齢，潜伏年数などを，日本の早期胃癌の発見年齢分布（％）と比較検討してみた．早期胃癌の年齢分布（％）は発癌環境因子の強弱に応じて一定の傾向を示していた．

　A total of 329 cases of stomach cancer from the Seoul Paik Hospital, Korea, were studied with respect to their age at the time of diagnosis, cancer development (calculated with the Nakamura's formula), and latent period of the cancer. The above data were compared with the age distribution of early gastric cancer among the Japanese. The following are the findings: (1) Average age of the 329 cases at the diagnosis was 50.9 years (Korean average: 50.6 years) which is 7 years younger than Japanese, and 14 years younger than American average ages. (2) The estimated latent period of Korean gastric cancer was 8 years while that of early gastric cancer was 4 years. However, as the incidence of detection of early gastric cancer will increase in the future in Korea, this particular number 8 will gradually become closer to 4. (3) Ages at which gastric cancer develops and is diagnosed, and the age distribution of cancer cases in any given country will reflect accordingly the strength of environmental carcinogenic agents. For instance, the stronger the carcinogenic agents, the more the age distribution of cancer cases moves to the lower age groups while the weaker the carcinogenic agents are, the more it moves to the higher age groups. By considering the degree of the above trends found in Korea, it could be said that Korea may be 30 years behind Japan in the control of environmental factors responsible for gastric cancer.