The mystery that led this family to get their stomachs removed

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

When Karyn Paringatai learned about a pattern among her family members, it changed the course of her life: A lot of people died young. As Karyn dug into her family history, she learned many Maori families, like her own, suffered from a rare form of stomach cancer called diffuse gastric cancer. Sarah Zhang recently wrote a story on this kind of cancer as a staff writer at The Atlantic. Today, she gets into all the details with Short Wave host Emily Kwong: the mutation that causes it and the life-changing decision people with the mutation have to make – risk dying or get surgery to remove their entire stomach?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.2	When Karen Parenthottai's father died, she did what a lot of people do. She reconnected with his side of the family. And a pattern she learned on that side of the family changed the course of her life. She noticed that a lot of people on his side had died young,
0:23.5	not just her cousin's sister, her cousin's mother, and her cousin's grandmother, all gone. So the
0:30.5	family started to realize there must be something wrong. Sarah Zang is a staff writer at the Atlantic.
0:36.7	She recently wrote a story on
0:38.3	Māori families like Karens, where long lines of people have died from a rare form of
0:43.7	stomach cancer called diffuse gastric cancer. It causes cancerous cells to percolate undetected
0:50.7	in the stomach lining, only becoming obvious in advanced stages. But by then,
0:55.9	it's usually too late to treat. That's what happened to Karen's cousin. And so after this,
1:01.1	Karen hears from her, you know, you need to get tested because there's this mutation that's
1:05.9	running through our family that gives you a really high risk of stomach cancer. Now, if she
1:10.4	tested positive for this mutation, Karen would have a 70% chance of developing
1:15.4	this form of cancer. She does get tested, and she finds out she is positive for the mutation.
1:21.3	But then, doctors tell Karen about one unexpected, life-saving option.
1:27.0	She can get surgery to get her entire stomach removed.
1:31.2	Her reaction is just like, what do you mean?
1:32.7	Like, can you live without a stomach?
1:34.6	How would you eat? How would you replace it?
1:36.6	And Sarah says both options come with risks.
1:38.8	A 70% chance of deadly cancer or surgery with a 100% chance of significant side effects.
1:46.9	Today on the show, Life Without a Stomack, how Maori families have advanced scientific understanding of a rare form of stomach cancer and are beating the odds of survival.
1:57.6	I'm Emily Kwong, and you're listening to Shortwave, Science Podcast from NPR.
	...

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