ABSTRACT
Clinical and diagnostic problems of early stomach cancer were considered for 157 patients with diagnosis confirmed after operation. Gastroenterological diseases were not mentioned in the past medical history of 22.9% of the patients only. 48.4% of the patients had the so-called stomach precancerous diseases, 28.7% other diseases of the alimentary tract. At diagnosis of carcinoma, 51.6% of the patients had clinical signs of previous diseases. The importance of prophylactic medical examination in the diagnosis of early stomach cancer was emphasized (cancer was detected actively in 84.7%). Since the gross appearance of early stomach cancer looks like benign lesions, the x-ray and endoscopic methods might not be quite informative. Morphological examination of the spot biopsy material raised preoperative diagnostic accuracy up to 92.3%.