Carcinoma of the stomach in young persons.

The clinical and morphologic characteristics of gastric carcinoma occurring in young persons were studied retrospectively and compared with a control group of older individuals. Immigrants from high-risk countries were found to have a higher incidence of the disease. There was a significantly longer delay in diagnosis and a significantly shorter survival when the disease in young individuals was compared with the control group. However, this difference in survival was due to a larger number of clinically advanced tumors and disappeared when the groups were matched stage for stage. As expected, diffuse carcinomas were the commonest morphologic type seen in young persons. In contrast with other studies, carcinomas in young people were found to produce larger amounts of sulphomucins than those occurring in older people. However, in the adjacent nonneoplastic epithelium, sulphomucin production and incomplete metaplasia was seen less commonly in the younger age group. These mucins' secretion patterns were more closely related to the histologic type of neoplasm than to the age of the patient.