DIAGNOSIS OF CANCER OF THE STOMACH: THE USE OF THE GASTROSCOPE AND THE GRUSKIN TEST

The lesion causing approximately half of the deaths from cancer and 3 per cent of all the deaths in this country, with a mortality rate that increases in spite of continued study, cannot be overstressed. Fair advances are being made in the attack on the problem of cancer in general. Cancer of the stomach practically alone remains with an increasing death rate. The reason is at once apparent. The incidence is high, and the diagnosis is perhaps the most difficult one to make at the present time. The symptomatology is so variable as to be often valueless, and particularly is this true in the early stage when the cancer is eradicable. While roentgen diagnosis of the cancer has been greatly improved, the dependence on this very procedure perhaps contributes as much to the incidence of advanced cases as any other factor. The difficulty of arriving at a definite diagnosis by