HISTOLOGICAL TYPES OF GASTRIC-CANCER IN MEXICO

Background. Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of malignant tu mours in Mexico. The distribution of the histological types of this tu mour has not been estimated from a population-based representative sam ple. Methods. The histological types of gastric cancer according to th e Lauren classification and selected socio-demographic characteristics for 220 patients from different socioeconomic levels are reported. Th e study population represents 66% of all new gastric cancer cases duri ng 1989-1990 reported to the Mexico City Cancer Registry, The patients attended four public hospitals, seven social security hospitals and f our private hospitals in Mexico City, A second histological diagnosis was performed by one pathologist. Results. No specific histological ty pe of gastric cancer predominated since the estimated distribution for intestinal gastric cancer was 44.5%, for diffuse gastric cancer 43.2% (and the remaining 12.3% corresponded to indeterminate tumours). The distribution of intestinal and diffuse gastric cancer did not vary sig nificantly according to socioeconomic level or medical care unit and i t showed a clear relationship with gender, the intestinal type of gast ric cancer being more common among males. Conclusions. Mexico may not have been affected by the gastric cancer epidemic at the beginning of the twentieth century but the available information and the results of this study are only useful to demonstrate that, currently, no histolo gical type of gastric cancer (according to Lauren's classification) pr edominates significantly in this country.