Dietary habits and epidemiology of gastric carcinoma

Gastric carcinoma has been the primary cause of cancer incidence worldwide until the early eighties. However, its incidence and mortality rates have been declining in most areas of the world over the last decades. This pattern of trends may reflect important changes in lifestyle linked to socioeconomic factors (refrigeration of stored foods, water supply, decline of infections and dietary habits). This article reviews the changing epidemiology of gastric carcinoma including time trends, pathological considerations, and international distribution as well as the main methodological difficulties of the studies about the relationships between dietary habits and gastric carcinoma.