Gastric cancer. Some aspects of epidemiology, risk factors, treatment and survival
Walker, A.R.; Madden, M.V.; Dent, D.M.
South African Medical Journal 72(1): 30-33
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 3603289 Document Number: 297706
Gastric cancer mortality has fallen sharply in many Western populations, yet world-wide it probably remains the single commonest cancer. A diet rich in salted or smoked food and low in vitamin C contributes to its pathogenesis, while the environmental type of atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia are consistently associated and may represent precursors of malignant change. Better food preservation may have a protective effect. Since patients with gastric cancer usually present with incurable disease and survive for only a few months, only those likely to live long enough to benefit from surgery should be operated upon. In the small proportion of patients who have curable disease, extended lymph node dissection increased morbidity and has not convincingly been shown to prolong survival. The palliation offered by surgery, and particularly that achieved by chemotherapy and radiation, deserves further study. Screening for gastric carcinoma seems unlikely to decrease mortality.