The steady decline in the incidence and mortality of stomach cancer in most affluent countries has been attributed to changes in dietary pattern, food storage, and control of H. pylori infection. The incidence of gastric cancer varies in different parts of the world with highest incidence rates documented in Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America, while North America and Africa show the lowest recorded rates[3,8-10]. Stomach cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Europe with 159 900 new cases and 118 200 deaths reported in 2006[11]. The population of Linxian, China is known to have one of the highest rates of oesophageal/gastric cardia cancer in the world[12]. In India, the incidence of gastric carcinoma is higher in the southern and north-eastern states with Mizoram recording an age-adjusted rate of 50.6 and 23.3 for men and women respectively[13,14]. A recent assessment of 556 400 deaths due to cancer in India in 2010 based on a nationally representative survey found that stomach cancer with a mortality rate of 12.6% is the second most common fatal cancer