[Changes in the gastric mucosa in endocrine-cell cancer]

Mucous membrane from different parts of the stomach has been studied in 53 surgical cases of stomach carcinoma. All the tumours were subdivided into endocrine-cell (EC) and non-endocrine-cell. The background in all cases was chronic gastritis which was most pronounced at the border with tumour and in the pyloro-antral part of the stomach. Hyperplasia of the fundal glands with hyperfunction of the chief and lining cells, hypersecretion of foveal epithelium, pseudo-pyloric metaplasia and helicobacteriosis were more frequent in EC-carcinomas. Dysplastic epithelial changes in EC were found in the lower third of the necks and terminal regions of the intermediar and pseudo-pyloric glands and in some cases in the foveolar epithelium and intestinal crypts. These features of the background and precancerous lesions in EC should be taken into consideration in diagnosis.