The progress of diagnosis of the alimentary tract cancer.

gastric cancer in 1962 on the basis of his "Nationwide Statistics on Early Gastric Cancer" involving 385 cases. According to him, early gastric cancer is defined as a carcinoma of the stomach, the invasion of which is limited to the mucosa and submucosa and it is classified into "Type I: protruded type, Type Ha: superficially elevated type, Type lib: superficially flat type, Type lie: superficially depressed type and Type III: excavated type." This classification is one of criteria to which a number of clinicians have been and are referring in interpreting gastric findings. This proves to be a very efficient classification since it is based on simple macroscopic observation of the surface of the lesion without regard for histogenetic aspect as to whether the lesion is ulcerative or polypoid. Between 1962 and 1972, we collected statistics from all over the country on early gastric cancer with collaboration of 91 institutions and presented them to the Gastroenterological Endoscopy, vol. 16. The statistics involved 8,069 early lesions of 7,617 patients. The incidence of early gastric