Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2023; 29(16): 2452-2468
Published online Apr 28, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i16.2452
Updates on global epidemiology, risk and prognostic factors of gastric cancer
Wen-Juan Yang, He-Ping Zhao, Yan Yu, Ji-Han Wang, Lei Guo, Jun-Ye Liu, Jie Pu, Jing Lv
Wen-Juan Yang, He-Ping Zhao, Yan Yu, Jun-Ye Liu, Jing Lv, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Honghui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, Shaanxi Province, China
Ji-Han Wang, Institute of Medical Research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi Province, China
Lei Guo, Department of Spinal Surgery, Honghui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, Shaanxi Province, China
Jie Pu, Department of Cardiology, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital, Xi'an 710068, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Yang WJ and Lv J searched and reviewed published articles, and wrote the manuscript; Yang WJ, Zhao HP, Yu Y, Wang JH, Guo L, Liu JY, Pu J and Lv J critically reviewed and revised the manuscript; Yang WJ and Lv J made substantial contributions to the conception and design of this study; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Xi'an Municipal Health Commission of China, No. 2022qn07; the Xi'an Municipal Health Commission of China, No. 2020ms14; and the Shaanxi Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 2019JQ-978.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jing Lv, MD, Doctor, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Honghui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, No. 555 Youyi Dong Road, Xi'an 710054, Shaanxi Province, China. lvjing-1219@163.com
Received: December 26, 2022
Peer-review started: December 26, 2022
First decision: March 8, 2023
Revised: March 19, 2023
Accepted: April 7, 2023
Article in press: April 7, 2023
Published online: April 28, 2023
Processing time: 119 Days and 9.7 Hours
Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is defined as the primary epithelial malignancy derived from the stomach, and it is a complicated and heterogeneous disease with multiple risk factors. Despite its overall declining trend of incidence and mortality in various countries over the past few decades, GC remains the fifth most common malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death globally. Although the global burden of GC has shown a significant downward trend, it remains severe in certain areas, such as Asia. GC ranks third in incidence and mortality among all cancer types in China, and it accounts for nearly 44.0% and 48.6% of new GC cases and GC-related deaths in the world, respectively. The regional differences in GC incidence and mortality are obvious, and annual new cases and deaths are increasing rapidly in some developing regions. Therefore, early preventive and screening strategies for GC are urgently needed. The clinical efficacies of conventional treatments for GC are limited, and the developing understanding of GC pathogenesis has increased the demand for new therapeutic regimens, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, cell immunotherapy and cancer vaccines. The present review describes the epidemiology of GC worldwide, especially in China, summarizes its risk and prognostic factors, and focuses on novel immunotherapies to develop therapeutic strategies for the management of GC patients.

Keywords: Gastric cancer; Epidemiology; Risk factors; Prognosis; Treatment; Immunotherapy

Core Tip: As a malignant disease with decreasing trends in incidence and mortality, gastric cancer (GC) remains a public health issue worldwide. Various risk factors have been suggested, and the prognosis of GC is related to various factors, such as tumor location, lymph node metastasis, gene polymorphisms and therapeutic strategies. Therefore, novel treatments have been proposed, and immunotherapy has attracted more attention. The present review discusses the epidemiology, risk and prognostic factors of GC with a focus on immunotherapy to better inform the management of GC patients.