Gastric Cancer With 3 Pathological Features

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 19 Sep 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Primary carcinoma of the stomach is almost always adenocarcinoma or signet ring cell carcinoma and there are few reports of choriocarcinoma or neuroendocrine cell carcinoma. We report a patient with adenocarcinoma of the stomach combined with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma. This is the first reported case of gastric cancer with these three pathological features.

A case article published on 28 May 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this report. The research team led by Prof. Yasumitsu Hirano from Kanazawa University Graduate school of Medical Science described a patient with adenocarcinoma of the stomach combined with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma.

They reported that a 85-year-old man presented to the hospital because of appetite loss. Gastric fiberscopy revealed a large tumor occupying the cardial region and anterior wall of the gastric body. The patient underwent total gastrectomy with lymphnode dissection and partial resection of the liver. In the gastric tumor, choriocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma and tubular adenocarcinoma were existed. The choriocarcinomatous foci contained cells positive for beta-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (B-hCG) and human placental lactogen mainly in syncytiotrophoblastic cells. The small cell carcinomatous foci contained cells positive for synaptophysin, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and chromogranin A.

The prognosis for gastric adenocarcinoma with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma is exceedingly poor. This patient died about 2 months after the first complaint from hepatic failure. This is the first reported case of gastric cancer with these three pathological features.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Reference: Hirano Y, Hara T, Nozawa H, Oyama K, Ohta N, Omura K, Watanabe G, Niwa H. Combined choriocarcinoma, neuroendocrine cell carcinoma and tubular adenocarcinoma in the stomach. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(20):3269-3272 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/3269.asp

Correspondence to: Yasumitsu Hirano, MD, PhD, Department of General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Kanazawa University Graduate school of Medical Science 13-1, Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

Source: Lai-Fu Li
World Journal of Gastroenterology