FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 359:2393-2395 November 27, 2008 Number 22 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear Related Article by Forman, D. PubMed Citation

To the Editor: In their Perspective article (July 31 issue),¹ Forman and Pisani ask, "Why does gastric cancer occur so frequently in Japan?" One answer was proposed more than 30 years ago by Matsudo et al.,² who detected talc in the normal gastric mucosa and in gastric cancers in Japanese patients and suggested a causal relationship.

Talc is used in Japan to polish rice, and it is customary to wash off the talc before cooking the rice. However, if the washing is insufficient, talc is ingested. Talc is a hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula H₂Mg₃(SiO₃)₄ . . . [Full Text of this Article]

HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  TERMS OF USE  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.