[Intestinal metaplasia and stomach cancer].

Foci of intestinal metaplasia of gastric mucosa are known to be heterogeneous both morphologically and functionally, and several types of such metaplasia are now recognized. However, different authors use different criteria for their identification and, moreover, evaluate the signs of metaplasia in different ways. Also, the relationship of different types of intestinal metaplasia to one another and to dysplastic changes in the epithelium and to gastric cancer is a matter of controversy. Variants of intestinal metaplasia with sulfomucin secretion are considered as precancerous states that may give rise to gastric cancer of an intestinal type.