Screening endoscopy for gastric cancer: time for quality control

Globally, gastric cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related death in men and the fifth-leading in women (1), and is especially prevalent in Eastern Asia, including Korea (2). To lower gastric cancer mortality, a national gastric cancer screening program including esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) has been introduced in Korea since 1999 (3). Korean people aged 40 years or older are invited to participate in the National Gastric Cancer Screening Program biennially. The Korean National Cancer Screening Program has been expanding steadily. The participation rate of gastric cancer screening has increased from 7.4% in 2002 to 45.4% in 2011 (4).