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The ABO blood group composition of 874 patients with cancer of the stomach was compared with that in four control groups—two groups of blood donors, and two groups of national servicemen. The percentage of blood group A was significantly higher in the patients than in the control groups. This predominance was most pronounced in patients with tumors of the antrum. Rhesus blood group composition between patients and control subjects did not differ. Data from recent literature are reported which elucidate the statistical relation between certain diseases of the digestive tract, e.g., gastric carcinoma, and the ABO blood group composition of the patients suffering from these diseases.

For some 20 years now androgenic hor­ mones have been known to exert a protein­ building influence. Uncertainty regarding the biochemical mechanism of action on which this is based does not lessen the use­ fulness of this "nitrogen-saving" effect which, in certain cases, can be used to improve the nutritional condition of certain patientfl. In the course of an investigation into dis­ orders following total gastrectomy, reported elsewhere,1-4 we encountered a series of pa­ tients in unsatisfactory nutritional condi­ tion whose capacity for food uptake was limited, in some cases permanently limited. In a few score of these cases an attempt was made to determine whether improvement of the utilization of the protein ingested could contribute to the attainment or main­ tenance of a positive nitrogen balance. The object was to improve these patients' nutri­ tional condition and general well being. Method Investigations were made with the aid of balance tests, the technique of which has been described in a previous publieation. l The food in­ take was accurately weighr,d and the constituents \H're calrulated with the aid of the Dutch Food­ stuffs Table. The fat content of the feces was de­ termined by the Van de Kamer method. The nitrogen content of the feces and the urine was determined by the Kjddahl method. In order to neutralize diurnal fiuetuations in food intake and in production of feces and urine, the period of observations during balance studies was divided into fiv e-day periods; during two such periods exactly identical therapy was given. The duration of balance periods should not be too short if reliable results are to be obtained. Protein utilization is the efficacy with which the organism uses the absorbed part of the pro­ teins for the building or rebuilding of body pro­ teins, or in other words: the extent to which the

(1) The antiandrogenic steroid cyproterone acetate exerted a strongly negative nitrogen balance in 8 young male volunteers, the degree of which correlated with the dose administered. In a male patient of 77 years with cancer of the prostate, this catabolic effect proved to be much weaker. In 8 female patients with hirsutism, administration of cyproterone acetate resulted only then in a negative nitrogen balance when the food was deficient in calories and protein. Continuous treatment with cyproterone acetate in female patients is not feasible because of strongly progestational side-effects. These side effects can be avoided by combining cyproterone acetate with ethinyl estradiol as an ‘inverted sequential scheme’, according to Hammerstein and Cupceancy [2]. In most female patients with hirsutism, good or satisfactory results can be obtained by a continuous cyproterone acetate therapy or by the combination treatment of Hammerstein and CUPCEANCY [2].