1990 Volume 51 Issue 7 Pages 1404-1409
Two thousand cases of solitary early gastric cancer were comparatively studied by dividing into each 1000 cases for the first and latter halves. When compared to the patients group for the first half, the proportion of aged patients over 70 years old increased, while by macroscopic types, type IIc increased but type IIc + III and type III decreased in the patients group for the latter half. The ratio of elevated versus depressed type was changed to 1/4 in the latter from 1/3 in the first half, indicating an increase in depressed type. Cancers arising in the upper stomach were doubled. Furthermore, in the latter half, the lesions less than 2cm in diameter were more frequently detected, while those more than 4.1cm being less frequently found. Surgery was decreasingly carried out in the latter half, because endoscopic excision bacame common for cancers less than 1cm in diameter. Patients having lymphnode metastases tended to decrease as a whole. In addition to an increase in detection of gastric cancers by mass screening or phisical examinations, a remarkable increase in detection of early cancers by practiticing doctors was noteworthy. It can be concluded that recent gastric cancers are commonly found in early stages with smaller size, which may promises of complete treatment for the patients by surgery or endoscopic excision.
