Epidemiology of gastric carcinoma: review and future prospects.

The epidemiology of stomach cancer is reviewed and key events identified, including migrant population studies, the Jarvi-Laurén classification of gastric carcinoma, and application of this classification to comparative autopsy studies. The gradual transformation to the epidemiology of precancer lesions is sketched, and the studies in Colombia contributing to this transformation are described. An etiologic model based on the formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds is proposed. Future work for investigators in the Department of Nariño (Colombia) to test and evaluate this hypothesis is described.