Precancerous lesions in the stomach.

Clinical and epidemiological studies indicate that the risk for gastric cancer is increased in pernicious anaemia, atrophic gastritis, postgastrectomy stumps. Ménétrier's disease and gastric adenomatous polyps. Using histoautoradiography, cell maturation disorders have been displayed in all these conditions. Abnormal proliferative patterns or increased uptake of 3H-actinomycin may indicate high risk lesions. However, the predictive value of such histoautoradiographic abnormalities in an individual patient has still to be evaluated by combinating these new techniques with clinical follow-up studies on large series of patients.