Histologic type and gastric acid secretion in gastric cancer.

We investigated gastric acid secretion in 638 gastric cancer patients with respect to the association between aging and histologic types. In intestinal type tumors in which invasion is restricted to the mucosa, and in diffuse type tumors where the tumor invaded the serosa there was a significantly negative correlation between acid secretion and age. However, no relationship was found between gastric acid output and age in signet ring cell carcinoma. On the other hand, a significantly negative correlation between acid secretion and age was shown in male patients with well differentiated type and in females with signet ring cell carcinoma. In conclusion, low acid secretion related to aging may play an important role in developing cancer cells in intestinal type tumors especially in the male elderly, and in diffuse type tumors in the female elderly, respectively.