Forty Years of Early Diagnosis of Gastric Cancer

Abstract

The first series of 15 gastric cancers, limited to the mucosa and detected between 1932 and 1937 by radiological interpretation, was presented by me at the International Congress of Gastroenterology in Paris 1937. Five of them had been operated on without the surgeon either feeling or seeing anything during laparotomy. Until March 1945, this series increased up to 19 cases. Of the 15 first cases, 13 were still living approximately ten years after gastrectomy; one died from a liver abscess, and another was never seen or contacted again. Two years ago, three of them, having reached the age of nearly 80, were still alive. To me, the so-called five-year-survival seems to be insufficient because gastric cancer can reappear after this time.