Cancer of the gastric cardia and the habit of smoking.

The habits of smoking and drinking were investigated in relation to pathologic findings in the stomachs of 1,347 patients who had undergone surgery for gastric cancer at Toranomon Hospital between 1977 and 1986. There were 1,210 patients (807 males and 403 females) with single gastric cancer and 137 (117 males and 20 females) with multiple gastric cancer. The most frequent location of the tumor in cases of single gastric cancer was the middle third (47.8%), followed by the distal third (33.4%), upper third (13.1%) and cardiac region (5.7%). Tobacco consumption was positively associated with gastric cancer in males (odds ratio as the approximate relative risk = 2.8), whereas alcohol consumption was not. Neither tobacco nor alcohol consumption was positively associated with gastric cancer in females. Among male patients with single cancer, the habit of smoking was more prevalent in those with cancer of the cardia than in those with cancer of other portions of the stomach (p less than 0.01).