Mortality from cancer of the stomach in Costa Rica

Accuracy of clinical diagnosis of gastric cancer in patients dying in Hospital San Juan de Dios, San José, Costa Rica, has been studied by comparing clinical and necropsy diagnoses in a random sample of deaths. Necropsy diagnoses were used as the “standard.” The total number of deaths assigned to gastric cancer seemed closely approximated by the clinical diagnoses. Cancer of the stomach accounted for 36% of all cancer deaths among males in all necropsied cases during a 2‐year period. The relative frequency of gastric cancer in the random sample of deaths which were necropsied was 33% of all cancer deaths among males. Age‐adjusted death rates for cancer of the stomach and mortality rates computed from deaths in well‐documented cases in San José Province plus a conservative estimate of additional deaths from cancer of the stomach suggest that mortality from this form of cancer in Costa Rica is high compared with other countries.