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In Italy the mortality rate for gastric cancer is still very high compared to that of other European countries, with marched differences between the regions (age-adjusted rates were much higher in the North than in the South). On the basis of official certifications, gastric cancer ranks as the second cause of death from cancer in both sexes, only surpassed by tumors of respiratory tract in men and breast cancer in women. This note examines the data relative to the official death certifications for stomach cancer in Italy, between 1950-1982, to value quantitatively the trend of the mortality in the last years as regards sex, age and birth year. The absolute values relative to death certifications for gastric cancer between 1950 and 1982 were obtained from the Istituto Centrale di Statistica which gathers all the death certifications issued throughout the whole of Italy. The 1951-1961-1971-1981 census data were used to calculate the rates for 100,000 inhabitants. For the thirty years considered, the following rates were calculated separately for each sex: a)--the age-specific mortality rates for five-year age groups in the three years around the census; b)--the age-adjusted mortality rates (direct methods, using the Italian population of the October 1981 census as standard population) for the total population and for those aged between 35 and 74; c)--the age-specific mortality rates in five-year age group, by cohorts of birth from 1883-85 to 1933-35; d)--the male/female ratio for gastric cancer mortality. Age-standardized death certification rates for the population of all ages decreased from 51.7 to 32.9/100,000 males and from 40.3 to 21.5/100,000 females. Age-standardized death truncated 35-74 years mortality rates showed a more marked declining trend in both sexes: from 92.5 to 50.1/100,000 males and from 57.3 to 23.3/100,000 females. If differences among the age-specific mortality rates between 1951 and 1981 is examined, it can be seen that there is a constant more or less marked decline for all the age groups up to 74, whereas in the higher age groups the rates tend to increase. The analysis of the cohorts of birth reveals that the decline in mortality rates for stomach cancer was already evident in females born at 1894 and in males born at 1904 and this continued regularly in the following decades. Finally, the trend male/female ratio for gastric cancer mortality increased over time from 1.28 in 1951 to 1.53 in 1981.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)