Between 1983 and 1992, 44 patients with early gastric cancer underwent operative treatment. This group comprised 13.3 percent of all patients with gastric cancer operated on during this period. Every patient underwent oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy before operation. The indication for surgery was histologically confirmed carcinoma in 37 patients, gastric haemorrhage in 2 patients and gastric ulcer unresponsive to medical treatment in 5 patients. The gastric carcinoma was limited to the mucosa in 28 cases and involved the submucosa in 16. Five patients, one with mucosal and four with submucosal early gastric cancer had regional metastatic lymph node involvement. Life-table calculated patient survival rate at 5 years, excluding the perioperative mortality, was 79.4 percent.
Conclusions: 1. The prevalence of early gastric cancer proved to be similar to previously published in West-Europe and United States. 2. If early gastric cancer is limited only to the mucosa, regional metastatic lymph node is relatively rare. 3. Gastrointestinal bleeding can be the first clinical sign of early gastric cancer. 4. Therapy resistant gastric ulcer requires surgery irrespective of the histological examination of the biopsy specimen.