Epidemiology of gastric cancer

Table 1 Epidemiologic differences between cardia and noncardia gastric cancer

	Cardia	Noncardia
Incidence	Increasing	Decreasing
Geographic location
Western countries	+	-
East Asia	-	+
Developing countries	-	+
Age	++	++
Male gender	++	+
Caucasian race	+	-
Low socio-economic status	-	+
H pylori infection	?	+
Diet
Preserved foods	+	+
Fruits/vegetables	-	-
Obesity	+	?
Tobacco	+	+

NOTE: ++, strong positive association; +, positive association; -, negative association; ?, ambiguous studies.