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. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/sarah-zhang/"target="_blank" >Sarah Zhang</a> recently wrote a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/03/stomach-cancer-total-gastrectomy/686623/?gift=e8DbyF2sDmzhn965n7rLL7i5OyzgM0iPSAMNssaj6Ws&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share"target="_blank" >story</a> 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? Interested in more science? Email us your question at <a href="mailto:shortwave@npr.org"target="_blank" >shortwave@npr.org</a>. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at <a href="http://plus.npr.org/shortwave"target="_blank" >plus.npr.org/shortwave</a>.Listen to Short Wave on <a href="https://n.pr/3HOQKeK"target="_blank" >Spotify</a> and <a href="https://n.pr/3WA9vqh"target="_blank" >Apple Podcasts</a>. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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The mystery that led this family to get their stomachs removed

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