About the Gastric Cancer Initiative

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide and is diagnosed in 27,000 Americans each year. In the United States, this burden falls disproportionately on ethnic minorities and immigrant communities, especially Asians. There exists no coherent national strategy for the early detection or risk attenuation of gastric cancer, even among identified high-risk groups. As a result, patients with gastric cancer in the US are diagnosed at later stages and demonstrate worse overall survival compared to nations of East Asia with established screening programs.

The under-recognition of gastric cancer risk among minority communities may be one of the most significant unaddressed healthcare disparities in the United States. There is a need for a national dialogue on strategies to decrease morbidity and mortality from gastric cancer in the United States, especially among the most vulnerable populations.

Gastric Cancer Summit

Gastric Cancer Summit 2022

This multi-disciplinary Summit brought together physicians, researchers, policy makers, patients, and advocacy groups from around the United States and the world, to share experiences and discoveries, with the common goal of creating a roadmap to address the healthcare disparity that exists within gastric cancer.

Gastric Cancer Summit 2020

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide and is diagnosed in 27,000 Americans each year. This multi-disciplinary Summit brought together physicians, researchers, policy makers, patients, and advocacy groups from around the United States and the world, to open a dialogue in gastric cancer and to address the current health disparity that exists affecting multiple minority groups including Asians, African Americans, Native Americans/Alaska Natives, Hispanics and immigrants from high incidence regions.

Community Outreach

As a part of Gastric Cancer Initiative, one of our goals is to educate not only physicians but the community about high-risk individuals who may benefit from screening. If you are a community organization and wish to engage with us, please contact: Dr. Joo Ha Hwang or Dr. Robert Huang.

ResearchMD interviewed Dr. Hwang on Gastric Cancer Screening and Surveillance

Gastric cancer is rare, but not as rare as we think. This makes screening and surveilling patients at high risk extremely important, but with no current guidelines available on how to do so, what steps can we take to make a difference in gastric cancer outcomes? To find out, Dr. Peter Buch speaks with Dr. Joo Ha Hwang, a Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University Medical Center who shares his insights on the early detection of gastrointestinal malignancie

Congratulations again Dr. Hwang and thank you for your work!

Listen to the podcast

Research

The Gastric Precancerous Conditions Study

Gastric cancer afflicts 27,000 Americans annually and carries a dismal prognosis. One reason for poor outcomes is late diagnosis, as the majority of gastric cancers in the United States are diagnosed at a relatively advanced stage where curative resection is unlikely. Gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) is a precancerous change of the stomach which increases risk for subsequent gastric cancer multiple-fold. The Gastric Precancerous Conditions Study (GAPS) is an observational study with two over-arching objectives: 1) improve the non-invasive identification of patients with GIM, and 2) develop biological markers to predict the subset of GIM which will progress onto gastric cancer.