Premalignant lesions of the stomach.

The histopathogenesis of the three major types of gastric carcinoma--intestinal, diffuse and indeterminate--is reviewed, considering normal and abnormal cell kinetics of the gastric mucosa. Intestinalization is a precursor of intestinal-type carcinoma and is related to environmental factors. Diffuse gastric carcinoma originates from dysplasia of the neck of the gland and is of nonenvironmental, probably genetic, origin.