Family behaviour of gastric carcinoma.

The etiology of gastric carcinoma was investigated by the family study method. Familial factors had no great significance when gastric carcinoma was treated as a single disease. The role of familial factors could be demonstrated much better when gastric carcinomas were divided into histological subgroups. They appeared to be significant in the aetiology only of diffuse gastric carcinoma. The analysis based on the age and sex of the patient indicated that familial factors were associated with gastric carcinoma only in females, particularly young females.