Hypoproteinemia in patients with gastric cancer; its persistence after operation in the presence of body tissue repletion.

H YPOPROTEINEMIA occurs with greater frequency in patients with gastric cancer than in patients with other neoplasms or with benign lesions of the gastro-intestinal tract. This was noted earlier by various authors, and has been studied in this laboratory. Hypoproteinemia becomes more pronounced and resistant to therapy following surgical treatment for cancer of the stomach than following similar operations for benign lesions of the stomach or for cancers of other organs. In previous studies from this laboratory, it was shown7 that the preoperative administration of large amounts of protein to patients with gastric cancer renders the postoperative hypoproteinemia less pronounced. The present study revealed that hypoproteinemia, once it is established in patients with gastric cancer following operation, is persistent in spite of the administration of large amounts of protein adequate to result in significant increase of body tissue protein.