Atsumi Y, et al. - Researchers prospectively evaluated changes in bone metabolism among 39 men with early gastric cancer following gastrectomy in this study. Women were excluded to avoid the effects of menopause. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) was used to measure bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine. DEXA revealed a significant decrease in BMD by 0.036 ± 0.033 g/cm² 12 months after gastrectomy and by 0.046 ± 0.040 g/cm² 24 months after gastrectomy. They noted a significant correlation between lower preoperative body mass index and the reduction in BMD 12 months after surgery.