Abstract
1 . The existence of hypoproteinemia in patients with gastric cancer has once again been observed.
2. The intractability of this type of hypoproteinemia in the postoperative phase to treatment with high protein diets and in the presence of positive nitrogen balance has been demonstrated.
3. Long-term studies in two patients, for 28 and 108 days respectively, suggest that the persistence of hypoproteinemia in patients with gastric cancer in positive nitrogen balance is probably not due to a marked degree of depletion of tissue protein stores alone. These patients retained more protein than would have been necessary to replenish depleted tissues.
4. It seems more likely that while such patients are capable of tissue protein synthesis, they fail to shift new protein into the blood stream.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The help of Dr. E. C. Reifenstein, Jr., in preparing the manuscript is gratefully acknowledged.
