GASTRIC cancer is a major concern in every country for which valid data are available. The extreme high and low incidence rates predicate environmental factors as causative agents.
A study by state and by region of the ten-year average-age adjusted mortality from gastric cancer in the United States showed a definite pattern, with substantial differences from region to region.10 North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Louisiana have unusually high death rates. Death rates for men are generally twice those for women; non-whites in the United States have higher rates than whites (Fig 1).
Information on incidence of gastric cancer in 69 population groups has become available.11 The 23-year unpublished personal study of six regions in Texas—covering 4 million people— Latin, Negro, and Anglo, also is available.
The range is from a low incidence of cancer among Caucasian men; 7.9/100,000 persons for El Paso, Texas, to a high incidence, 95.3/