A number of risk factors have been identified that increase the likelihood that someone will develop cancer of the stomach. Age is a particularly notable risk factor, prevalence of the disease increasing sharply among individuals over the age of 50. Stomach cancer is also twice as common among men as women, and is more prevalent among African American, Asian, and Hispanic peoples than white Americans. Differences in customary diet and eating habits are thought to at least partially underlie ethnicity and gender differences in stomach cancer rates. Diets that include large amounts of smoked, salted, and pickled foods have been especially linked to increased risk of gastric cancer. Other risk factors include chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori, tobacco use, prior stomach surgery, family history of gastric cancer, infection with Epstein-Barr virus, stomach polyps, and various familial cancer syndromes.

In the digital image above, a sample of rat stomach tissue is presented that was labeled with the fluorophore Oregon Green 488 conjugated to wheat germ agglutinin, a lectin that selectively binds to sialic acid residues. Wheat germ agglutinin conjugates are often used as probes for the Golgi network in mammalian tissues and cells. The sample was also stained with Alexa Fluor 568 conjugated to phalloidin and Hoechst 33342, which target the cytoskeletal F-actin network and nuclear DNA, respectively. Images were recorded in grayscale with a 12-bit digital camera coupled to a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles.