[Gastric cancer]

Gastric cancer, especially adenocarcinoma, is variable in incidence on the world. In this paper, there is a review of the epidemiology and the etiopathogenic factors of the disease: genetics, hereditary, immunologic and environmental and, also, of the so called precursor diseases: atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia, gastric adenoma, gastrectomized patients, pernicious anemia and Menetrier's disease. There is an explanation about the changes of the gastric epithelium related both with the intestinal and diffuse type of adenocarcinoma; the anatomo-pathological notion of macroscopic advanced-Borrmann and early cancer-Japanese classification and the clinical and diagnostic procedures are included with the fundamentals of therapeutic management.