Five-year net survival for stomach cancer improved noticeably during 2000-2014. This improvement might be due to advances in systemic chemotherapy. Although survival in distal stomach cancer had improved, no such improvement was seen in proximal stomach cancer. Standardizing esophagogastric junction cancer treatment may improve its outcomes and contribute to better survival in proximal stomach cancer overall. Scientific evaluation of screening programs is also needed to enhance the efficacy of stomach cancer control initiatives in Japan.
Matsuzaka et al. (Fri,) studied this question.