Introduction: gastric cancer for many countries in the world and in Cuba is a major health problem.
Objective: to determine the clinical-epidemiological characteristics of patients diagnosed with gastric cancer in the digestive endoscopy service at Abel Santamaría Cuadrado General Teaching Hospital.
Method: a descriptive, cross-sectional study of 39 patients with suggestive and endoscopic symptoms of gastric cancer, and the sample included 36 patients with positive histology. The variables taken were: age, sex, and histology of the gastric biopsy, result of the upper digestive endoscopy, associated risk factors, clinical manifestations and metastasis. Frequency distribution analysis was used.
Results: the most affected group was 61 to 70 years old, being more frequent in male sex, with epigastralgia in 55.5% as the main symptom, the ulcerated form was the most observed localized in antrum and pylorus, intestinal type of adenocarcinoma was the most frequent in the histological assessment, Helicobacter pylori infection was present in 63.8% of the cases as a predominant risk factor, with metastases findings in the 69.4% of all cases of the estudied universe.
Conclusion: most of the cases were diagnosed in advanced stages, when the probability of cure is reduced
