Immunochemical fecal occult blood test is inadequate for screening test of stomach cancer

The present study was carried out to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of the immunochemical fecal occult blood test in the screening for stomach cancer. In the hospital-based case-control study, the test was positive in 6 (14.3%) subjects with stomach cancer, in 32 (76.2%) subjects with colorectal cancer, and in 10 (7.9%) healthy subjects, respectively, showing a significant difference in detection rate between the subjects with stomach cancer and colorectal cancer (p < 0.01). In the population-based cross-sectional study, detection rate for stomach cancer was 0.13% and 0.15% for negative and positive groups decided by immunochemical fecal occult blood test, indicating no significant difference. These results reveal that the immunochemical fecal occult blood test is inadequate as the screening test for stomach cancer and suggest that examination of the upper digestive tract is unnecessary in cases where the result of focal occult blood test is positive with no sign of colorectal diseases.