Trends in tumor location in gastric carcinoma over a 28-year period.

Background/aims: Gastric cancer is still a leading cause of cancer death in the world and in Brazil. Historically a majority of gastric tumors were located in the distal third of the stomach. However, several studies have shown a shift in tumor location towards the proximal third.

Methodology: Japanese rules for gastric cancer treatment were followed. All patients that were submitted to surgical resection for gastric cancer between 1971 and 1998 were included. These patients were divided into 3 time periods and classifled according to tumor location.

Results: 1021 patients underwent gastric resection for adenocarcinoma. The distal third of the stomach (53.7%) was the most common site. The proportion of tumors located in the proximal and middle thirds of the stomach increased significantly from 8.1% to 15% and 16.2 to 29.8% respectively at the last decade.

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest an increase in the incidence of tumors to the proximal third of the stomach. However the high incidence of these tumors reported in literature is not confirmed.