Clinico-pathological study of gastric cancers in the greater curvature.

The cases of gastric cancer in the greater curvature were 343 of 3,727, 9.2%, of which the early cancers were 62 of 1,060 cases or 5.9%. The average age of the patients with gastric cancer in this area was somewhat higher in comparison to that of all gastric cancers. In the early cancers of this area, the incidence of intestinal type cancers was rather frequent than that in the early cancers of the other areas. However, in the advanced cancers of this area, the incidence of diffuse type cancers was more frequent than that in the advanced cancers of the other areas. It should be considered that the difficulty of early diagnosis of cancer in the fundic gland area caused the discrepancy of the histological incidences of early and advanced cancers in the greater curvature. The incidence of early cancers with the size beyond 5 cm in diameter was 4.8% (15.5% in all early gastric cancers). Probably, the cancers in the greater curvature grow rapidly in comparison to those in the other areas.