AbstractDespite a steady decline in incidence over the past five decades in this country, gastric carcinoma continues to represent a major health problem. From the turn of the century through the 1930s, gastric cancer was the leading cause of death in the United States (1). Despite the subsequent decline, the American Cancer Society estimated that approximately 25,000 new diagnoses of gastric cancer would be made in 1988, and that deaths due to this malignancy would exceed 14,400 in the same year. At present, it is the eighth most common cause of cancer death in this country.