Early gastric cancer in Singapore.

Gastric cancer is one of the commonest malignancies in Singapore. 330 to 350 new cases are reported annually. Only about 8% of these cases undergo curative resection and the rest receive some form of palliative surgery. Early gastric cancer (i.e., cancer limited to mucosa and submucosa) is rarely diagnosed in Singapore. This paper presents 11 cases of early gastric cancer treated successfully by various Departments of Surgery over the past 5 years. All patients are well and free of tumour to date. The aim of this presentation is to remind clinicians of the importance of detecting early gastric cancer which has more than 90% 5 year survival rate.