While many types of cancer have increased in incidence over the last several decades, stomach cancer has declined significantly in the United States and many other parts of the world. It is widely thought that this decline may be related to the widespread use of refrigeration and a decreased dependence on smoked, salted, and pickled foods. Some researchers have also suggested that the decrease in stomach cancer is largely attributable to the prevalent dispensation of antibiotics to children with infections. In addition to battling the infections, the antibiotics are capable of eradicating Helicobacter pylori bacteria, which has been linked to the development of peptic ulcers as well as stomach cancer.

This widefield image of a rat stomach tissue sample was produced by probing the specimen with Alexa Fluor 568, Oregon Green 488, and Hoechst 33342. The Alexa Fluor dye was conjugated to phalloidin, targeting the cytoskeletal F-actin network, and Oregon Green 488 was conjugated to WGA in order to localize a green fluorescent tag to the Golgi complex. The nuclear counterstain Hoechst 33342 was employed to visualize cell nuclei. 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.