Prevalence of Family History of Cancer among Gastric Cancer Patients at Brazilian National Cancer Institute

Abstract

Background: Gastric cancer is the third most incident malignancy and the fifth leading cause of death in the world. In Brazil, it is the fourth most common tumour in men and the fifth in women. Familial aggregation of this tumour is being studied and discussed by experts. Aim: Determine the frequency of family history of cancer in patients with gastric cancer, suggesting familial aggregation or increased risk for hereditary cancer syndromes. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out from January 2011 to March 2015 at the Department of Abdominal and Pelvic Surgery of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA). Data were collected from electronic medical records and analyzed using SPSS Statistics® version 20. Results: 873 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were analyzed. A family history of cancer was reported by 451 patients (51.6%), which reported cancer in 878 relatives, of which 110 (12.6%), reported having more than three relatives with any type of cancer. The most prevalent malignancies among these relatives were gastric cancer (21.3%) and breast cancer (9.5%). Conclusion: Most of the patients had cancer family history, being gastric cancer the most common. The high percentage of cancer family history confirms the importance of collecting this information, whose lack reflects professional negligence, as family history study can serve as a low-cost tool, favoring prevention and early diagnosis, situations where morbidity and mortality are smaller, thus reducing health costs and assistance and preserving lives