High Incidence of Gastric Cancer in Kargil Ladakh

The Gastric Cancer rates shows marked geographical variation in the world. Although India has a low incidence of gastric cancer, population and hospital based cancer registries of certain regions of India 2012-2014 shows stomach cancer as among the five leading cancers in India. This descriptive study was undertaken for the first time in Kargil Ladakh region, over a period of 10 years (April 2009 to April 2019), to analyze the incidence of gastric cancer in the region. Gastric Cancer accounted for 42.12 % of all the cancers in the region. The age -standardised incidence rate of gastric cancer in Kargil Ladakh was 19.03/100 000 per year. As majority of the population does not consume alcohol and H. pylori strains from Ladakh are genetically distinct and possibly less virulent, other prevalent habits and risk factors of 187 gastric cancer patients were studied in detail.