[Gastric cancer--an attempt to correlate experimental and clinical findings (author's transl)]

The correlation of induced gastric cancer in experimental animals with spontaneous gastric cancer in man may be based on several parameters. Malignant tumors have many properties, such as growth, heterotopia, anaplasia, unresponsiveness to extrinsic stimuli, and ability to evoke local and systemic reactions in the autologous host. Individually these properties do not characterise malignancy, but collectively they provide criteria for correlation of human and experimental gastric cancer. Accumulated data, particularly recent findings, attest to many similarities of induced animal and spontaneous human gastric cancer. However, the complexity of the disease is emphasized and data indicate a multi-causative etiology, with various factors interacting in a multi-coordinate manner.