The prodigious effort expended by the medical profession in the study of malignant diseases probably has had less effect on mortality from gastric cancer than on that from any other of the common types of carcinoma. While gratifying progress has been made in the treatment of cancer of the skin, nasopharynx, larynx, cervix uteri and the breast, cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, and most particularly of the stomach, remains a highly lethal disease. A favorable outcome in gastric cancer is so unusual that most practicing physicians have never witnessed a cure. Indeed, only those privileged to observe, over a long period of time, large numbers of patients with cancer of the stomach are in a position to know of the occasional cures. In a disease with such a dismal outlook it seems prudent to review its salient features to determine (1) whether this outlook is justified and (2) what is