The significance of low serum pepsinogen levels to detect stomach cancer associated with extensive chronic gastritis in Japanese subjects.

Serum pepsinogen levels were measured in 137 stomach cancer patients and compared with those of 288 normal cancer-free subjects. The serum pepsinogen levels of stomach cancer patients, especially pepsinogen I and the pepsinogen I/pepsinogen II ratio were significantly lower than those of normal controls and correlated well with the extent of chronic gastritis associated with the cancerous stomach. These results were in good accordance with the results of previous studies indicating that the cancer derived from the stomach where chronic gastritis/intestinal metaplasia is extensive. The high sensitivity and specificity of this non-invasive serum test to detect chronic gastritis suggested the possibility of its application to the mass screening of stomach cancer.