GASTROSCOPY IN FOLLOW-UP-STUDY OF CHRONIC SUFFERERS WITH ATROPHIC GASTRITIS AND EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF GASTRIC-CANCER

Visual assessment of gastric mucosa and histological findings in biopsies from the lesions were compared for 1806 patients with chronic atrophic gastritis. The spectrum of the focal lesions appeared wide. Morphological examinations determined basic comparable structural elements typical for atrophic gastritis. 85 patients were diagnosed to have early gastric cancer. All the cancer patients suffered from chronic atrophic gastritis and developed in 88% of cases intestinal metaplasia, in 32% of severe epithelial displasia. Focal changes in the mucosa characteristic for early gastric cancer in 64% of cases could be considered as variants of chronic atrophic gastritis. In 52 patients cancer was identified during the follow-up, new-onset macroscopic alterations emerging in the last year in 62% cancer subjects. The rest of them had long-lasting macroscopic lesions, among them severe displasia of the epithelium in 65% of cases, believed to be histological variants of atrophic gastritis. Early cancer is suggested to develop in the presence of previous lesions rapidly and descretely.