[Carcinoma of the stomach]

During the period from 1961 to 1976 884 patients with cancer of the stomach were registered and treated at surgical Clinic in Zagreb. From those cases 607 (68,66%) were men and 277 (31,34%) women. The age of patients varied from 50 to 70 years. More of them were pensoners and farmers. From those patients 196 (22,17%) were smokers and 176 (19,9%) alcoholics. All of them had usual symptoms of cancers of the stomach, mainly combined with loss in weight, loss of appetite and gastrointestinal bleeding. Average duration of symptoms before coming to the Clinic was six months. Preoperatively 88 (9,9%) were inoperable. By explorative laparotomy 175 (17,5%) inoperable cases were found. At 261 (29,5%) palliative operations were done. 63 (7,1%) patients refused to be operated. Using different methods 297 (35,5%) patients were radical operated. The most frequent were adenocarcinoma and after them gastric ulcers which became malignant. The most frequent causes of death were peritonitis and pneumonia. 7,3% of radically operated patients survived 5 years.