Global collaborations, advanced technology and new outreach initiatives are propelling the growth of the Gastric Cancer Registry at Stanford University School of Medicine. The registry is positioned for continued expansion in 2026, predicts primary investigator Hanlee Ji, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford.

This has been a banner year for the registry and for its Genome Explorer portal, which provides researchers worldwide with free access to data generated from the registry. Accomplishments include:

• The registry has collected a total of more than 723 tissue samples from patients with gastric cancer, making it one of the largest organized repositories of gastric cancers in the world.
• The Genome Explorer now includes genomic data from 257 GCR tumors, as well as genomic datasets for 443 gastric tumors and 185 esophageal tumors from the Cancer Genome Atlas, making the GCR Genome Explorer one of the largest publicly accessible repositories of gastric cancer genomic data worldwide.
• The Genome Explorer supports more than 100 active users engaged in multidisciplinary gastric cancer research, 70% of whom are from academia.

The large increase in total patient accruals in the registry in 2025 reflects productive, ongoing collaborations with the Intermountain Healthcare in the United States, the Integra Cancer Institute in Guatemala, Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, Nacional de Cancerologia and Universidad Autonoma de Manizales in Columbia and Federal University of Para in Brazil. In addition to receiving precancerous and cancerous tissue samples from those institutions, the registry received invaluable genomics data from 464 gastric cancer specimens originating in Brazil. Read more >>

The global incidence of some types of gastric cancer was higher for females under age 50 than it was for males in 22 countries between 1988 and 2017, a new study reports. The finding supports other studies showing that the disease is becoming more prevalent in young people, the authors said, emphasizing the need for improved screening efforts.

The common gut bacteria Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) causes changes in stomach tissue that can evolve into cancer. Two new reports conclude that eradicating H. Pylori infection can lower the risk of gastric cancer. One of the studies concluded that gastric cancer incidence falls by 40% with eradication of the bacteria.

Identifying gastric cancer in its earliest stages is key to improving survival. Could artificial intelligence help boost early diagnoses? A recent analysis of 19 studies concluded that AI-assisted endoscopies were effective in detecting early stomach cancer with high rates of sensitivity and specificity.