Table 1.

Clinical data

	Proximal			Distal
	Biopsies normal	Biopsies IM	Cancer resections	Biopsies normal	Biopsies IM	Cancer resections
Number of subjects	56	49	39	52	50	78
Gender{F/M}	28/28	22/27	13/26	30/22	29/21	34/44
Age, years	50 (16)	58 (16)A	67 (11)B	52 (18)	59 (14)C	69 (10)D
Mean and (SD)
Tumour type			30 Intestinal			42 Intestinal
			9 Diffuse			36 Diffuse
TNM-stage,			T 3.1 (0.6)			T 3.0 (1.1)
mean and (SD)			N 1.0 (0.8)			N 1.0 (0.8)

There was a significant stepwise increase in patient age between patients with biopsies showing normal mucosa to patients with biopsies showing IM to patients with gastric cancer resections in both proximal and distal locations. A-D, P < 0.0001. SD = Standard deviation.