Association between serum gastrin levels, gastric acid secretion and age in early gastric cancer

This study evaluated the effect of gastric acid secretion and serum gastrin response on tumor differentiation for early gastric cancer according to patients' age. We investigated the association between serum gastrin levels, gastric acid secretion and the histologic types of 335 early gastric carcinomas limited to the mucosal and submucosal layers in comparison with 450 gastric and 197 duodenal ulcers. The preoperatively examined basal acid output, maximal acid output and peak acid output after administration of tetragastrin and serum gastrin levels before and after ingestion of a test meal were determined. Patients with differentiated cancer and duodenal ulcer showed a significant negative correlation between gastric acid secretion and age, while the former group also had a significant positive correlation between serum gastrin levels and age. On the other hand, patients with undifferentiated cancer did not show any such correlation between gastric acid and age, but showed a significant positive correlation between serum gastrin, integrated gastrin response and age. Patients with gastric ulcer did not show any such correlations. These data suggest that both low acid secretion and endogenous hypergastrinemia, especially in the elderly, may play an important role in differentiated and undifferentiated gastric carcinomas.