How high the incidence of digestive system cancer is in the mainland is to look at the following set of data.
According to the latest statistics, among the top 6 high-incidence cancers in mainland China, digestive system cancers account for 4 of them, especially colorectal cancer and gastric cancer. According to data released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) under the World Health Organization, China accounts for 30% of the world's new patients with colorectal cancer and 44% of the world's new patients with gastric cancer. Colorectal cancer is the fastest-growing cancer in China in recent years.
Japan, which is also an East Asian country, has a high incidence of stomach cancer, which is on par with the mainland, but incredibly, its cure rate is much higher than that of the mainland, and it is more than three times the cure rate of the mainland. It is no exaggeration to say that Japan has one of the highest cure rates for stomach cancer in the world. It's also stomach cancer, why is the cure rate so high in Japan?
The reason for this lies in the discovery of the sooner or later problem, which is also the biggest gap between the mainland and Japan.
Once a person has passed the age of 40, these two examinations should be done as soon as possible!
In gastrointestinal cancers, the 5-year survival rate for advanced patients is less than 30%, while the 5-year survival rate for early-stage patients can exceed 90%. Obviously, the mainland has not done enough in this regard, China has the world's leading level of endoscopy technology, but the mainland people's understanding and application level of endoscopic medical methods such as gastroscopy is far from Japan and other countries.
According to the "Survey on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer Patients in China", 84.9% of people in mainland China do not know the screening method of colorectal cancer, and 97.4% of people have not done colonoscopy, which leads to the fact that about 80% of colorectal cancer patients in China are already at an advanced stage when they first visit the hospital, and the popularization of digestive system cancer prevention and treatment is still a blind spot for most people in China.
Relative to the mainland, the inhabitants of Japan are the opposite. Most residents in Japan will have at least one gastrointestinal endoscopy after the age of 40, and the Japanese government has long included the gastroscopy physical examination project in the relevant laws and regulations, as a social welfare supervision and free of charge to the public. Japanese residents are more willing to take the initiative to learn about gastrointestinal cancer, take the initiative to do gastrointestinal endoscopy, early detection, and early treatment, which is the main reason for the high cure rate of digestive tract cancer in Japan.
Therefore, it is recommended that after the age of 40, colonoscopy and gastroscopy must be done in time, and gastrointestinal endoscopy is an irreplaceable means for early detection and treatment of esophageal cancer, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. This is especially true for people with the following diseases or symptoms:
(1) Have digestive tract diseases. For example, atrophic gastritis, gastrointestinal polyps, gastric ulcers, ulcerative colitis, etc.
(2) People with poor eating habits. Irregular diet, often eat supper, eat spicy hot, barbecue and other super spicy, hot food people.
(3) Frequent symptoms of digestive tract discomfort. For example, people with long-term abdominal pain, constipation, bloating, diarrhea, and blood in the stool.
Generally speaking, after the relevant examination, if everything is normal, you can go for a follow-up examination at an interval of 5-10 years, and if you find abnormalities, you should listen to the doctor's advice to recheck on time.
If a polyp is found on a gastroscopy, will it become cancerous over time?
When it comes to polyps, many middle-aged and elderly people have similar experiences of intestinal polyps and stomach polyps. So, when a polyp is detected, should it be left alone? Regardless of whether it becomes cancerous or not?
In fact, it is true that polyps are the seeds of cancer, but whether polyps develop into cancer is related to many factors.
(1) The first is the size of the polyp: for polyps smaller than 1 cm or 1-2 cm, the chance of cancer is very small, only about 1%, and for polyps larger than 2 cm, the chance of cancer will be greatly increased, reaching 30%-40%.
(2) The second is the nature of polyps: polyps are divided into two types: non-adenomatous polyps, such as inflammatory polyps, hyperplastic polyps, etc., are mostly benign and rarely malignant; Adenomatous polyps, usually considered to be precancerous lesions, have a considerable malignant rate, but not all adenomatous polyps will necessarily develop into cancer, and cancerous changes are not cancerous in a short time, generally take 5-10 years, but since the probability of cancerous changes is large, it is better to remove them as soon as possible.
Of course, when an experienced doctor finds a polyp in a gastroscopy, he can observe the degree of benign malignancy from all aspects of appearance and morphology, and take necessary measures in time.