Cancer of the Stomach. Cancer of the stomach is a very serious disease, much rarer than the ordinary ulcer, and found among men twice as often as in women. It accounts for about 30 percent of all cancer deaths each year in the United States, which means that nearly 75,000 people a year die of stomach cancer in this country alone.

This treacherous disease is usually silent in its beginning and


Fig. 79. Cancer of the stomach includes about 30 per cent of all cancer. It can be removed surgically but often is too far grown when discovered. It is thought never to derive from an ordinary ulcer.

remains so until far advanced. Its cause is still unknown, but stomach cancer is found more often among the poor than among the wealthy, and heavy drinkers have much more stomach cancer than nondrinkers.

Like most cancers, stomach cancer is a disease of later years. It might appear in a man of fifty years or over, who has a loss of appetite, indigestion, and possibly pain similar to ulcer distress -relieved by eating food or liquid. Often there is a vague sick feeling in the abdomen, spoiling any desire for food and consequently small meals usually result in weight loss of great proportion. Unfortunately, the story of stomach cancer is not always the same, and frequently early symptoms are ignored. After the age of fifty years, any kind of stomach upset, lasting more than several days, should prompt a visit to the physician for an examination, possibly including an x-ray of the stomach to determine if a cancer problem exists. There is no other disease of the body in which early diagnosis is more important in achieving a final cure than in cancer of the stomach.

Achlorhydria (No Acid in the Stomach). The normal stomach secretes hydrochloric acid, which aids in digestion of foods. Frequently, we find people who have less than the normal amount of acids in their stomachs, and about one out of ten who possess little or no hydrochloric acid at all. When such a situation is found, hydrochloric acid is frequently given along with food at mealtime, and this therapy often results in improved appetite and digestion to the great satisfaction of the patient.

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