Screening is not recommended in Canada as both the effectiveness of screening and incidence of the disease is low. There should be a high index of suspicion in persons at particular risk. Risk factors for stomach cancer include: a family history of stomach cancer, pernicious anemia, gastric polyps, birth in a country where gastric cancer is common, e.g., Japan, and a previous partial gastrectomy. Most early curable gastric cancers present as gastric ulcers. Such patients should have gastroscopy and biopsy to exclude cancer.

Patients with a suspected familial syndrome should be referred to the hereditary cancer program at the BC Cancer Agency for counselling and genetic testing where feasible.