Prophylactic gastrectomy in familial gastric cancer: case report and review of literature

Gastric cancer is a prevalent disease. It is the most common cancer in men in Iran with around 7300 cases per year. Also it is the most common cause of cancer death in men and women in Iran [1]. Life style and environment including Helicobacter pylori infection and diet are risk factors, but 10% of cases with gastric cancer show familial clustering, which suggest a genetic predisposition [2,3]. Somatic E-cadherin gene mutations occur in 30% to 50% of patients with diffuse-type gastric carcinoma but not the intestinal type [1, 4]. A germline mutation in the E-cadherin gene, CDH1 on chromosome locus 16q22.1, first was recognized in a Maori kindred from New Zealand with diffuse gastric cancer in a pattern suggestive of an auto-somal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance [1,2]. Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) is an autosomal dominant, inhe-rited cancer syndrome which is described clinically by either 1) 2 or more documented cases of diffuse gastric cancer in first or second de-gree relatives with at least 1 diagnosed before age 50 years; or 2) 3 or more cases of documented diffuse gastric cancer in first or second de-gree relatives, indeCase Report