RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia and/or lower esophagus differs from cancer of the more distal stomach. METHODS: The authors compared the proportion of patients with these two types of cancer who underwent surgery for peptic ulcers more than 5 years before the diagnosis of cancer during the periods 1977-82 and 1983-88. RESULTS: The total number of patients with esophagocardiac cancer increased from 99-241 between the two periods, but the number with previous ulcer surgery remained the same (n = 7) in each period. The total number of more distal gastric cancers decreased from 262 to 237 between the two periods, but the number with previous ulcer surgery increased from 9-26 (P = 0.002). Only 4 of 14 patients with esophagocardiac cancer and a previous ulcer had a partial gastrectomy compared with 27 of 35 patients with more distal gastric cancers (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: These data indicate a relationship between partial gastrectomy and the late development of gastric cancer, but this finding is confined to cancers not involving the cardia.
