A 62-year-old man presents with dark tarry stools and light-headedness. Upper endoscopy finds an ulcerating lesion in his stomach and biopsies confirm gastric cancer. Which of the following is a risk factor for carcinoma of the stomach?
Low dietary vitamin C, and high salt and nitrate consumption predispose to gastric cancer, as does ingestion of smoked foods. Smoking is a risk factor, but alcohol is not. H. pylori is another important risk factor, since it causes gastritis that eventually leads to chronic atrophic gastritis, metaplasia, dysplasia, and then carcinoma.