Survival of black patients with gastric cancer in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.

In a series of 39 black gastric cancer patients, treated at Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, Johannesburg, the time of 50 per cent mortality was 3.5 months, half that of white patients. Patients' median age was lower than that of white patients, 58 versus 70 yr. Male/female ratio was 1.3:1. Black patients presented late; no patients' lesions were at clinical stages I and II, compared with 5-15 per cent reported for white patients. Weight loss, abdominal pain and vomiting were predominant features. Frequencies of smoking and of alcohol consumption in male and female patients appeared much the same as those prevailing in the general population. No marked differences between patients and controls were apparent in socioeconomic state, educational level, general dietary intake, nor in ownership of a refrigerator.