[Precancerous lesions in the gastrointestinal tract. I. The stomach]

Detection of precancerous lesions and early phases of stomach carcinoma is the basic aim in the fight against this malignant tumour of a very bad prognosis. On the basis of data from contemporary literature, the basic elements of epidemiology and pathology of stomach precancerous lesions are presented in this paper. Chronic gastritis, intestinal metaplasias, dysplasias, chronic stomach ulcer and the state after the stomach resection due to benign disease are dealt with from that aspect. The terms of precancerous states are considered in the introductory part. Through the definition of specific morphological changes general practitioners could be given help in elucidating this problem more successfully.