The Green Sink

It has been recently shown that gastric cancer patients have higher circulating gastrin levels than control subjects (Rakic et al., 1991). We measured fasting serum gastrin in patients with gastric cancer in an attempt to define whether any difference could be demonstrated according to the histologic type of tumour. The study population consisted of 61 patients with histologically proven gastric cancer and 26 normal subjects. Those with a potential cause for hypergastrinemia were excluded from the study. Gastric cancer patients were classified according to the criteria of Lauren (Lauren, 1965) as diffuse (n = 20) or intestinal type (n = 41). Venous blood samples were obtained with consent from each subject after an overnight fast. Serum gastrin levels were determined in unheparinised serum by radioimmunoassay using a commerical kit from Oris Industrie (Gif-Sur-Yvette, France). The antiserum used in the assay presents a correct recognition of G-17. The statistical analysis was done utilising the ANOVA (age), and Mann-Whitney tests (serum gastrin levels). The groups were well matched for age. The gastrin levels in pg ml' for the three groups are shown in Table I. The gastrin levels in patients with intestinal gastric cancer and diffuse gastric cancer were significantly higher than in controls (P <0.00001 and P <0.01 respectively). The mean and median gastrin levels in patients with intestinal gastric cancer were higher than in patients with diffuse gastric cancer, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.07). Elevated mean gastrin levels in patients with Table I Serum gastrin levels in patients with diffuse and intestinal type gastric carcinoma