Editorial: Significance of Chronic Atrophic Gastritis in First-Degree Relatives of Patients With Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide with approximately 934,000 new cases in 2002. Also, an estimated over 700,000 annual death make it the second most common cause of death from cancer. In Iran, gastric cancer is the first and third most common cause of cancer in males and females, respectively and its overall incidence is above the world average. Although the worldwide incidence of the gastric cancer has decreased rapidly over the recent few decades, its incidence in Iran does not show any decrease in the same time period (2-4). Ardabil in northwest of Iran is one of the areas with highest incidence of the gastric cancer, with ASR of 49.1 and 25.4 for males and females, respectively.