Clinicopathological Studies on the Early Gastric Cancers

Cases of the early gastric cancer were studied clinicopathologically. The early gastric cancer commonly occurred in the lower portion of the stomach. Macroscopically, the depressed type is dominant, whereas histologically, the most common type was a tubular adenocarcinoma (65%), and other types of carcinoma were signet ring cell carcinoma (15%), poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (13%), and papillary adenocarcinoma (4%). After all, the number of the cases of the well differentiated type was more than that of the poorly differentiated type. The mean age of the cases of the well differentiated type was 6 years older than that of the poorly differentiated type. The incidence of the lymphnode metastasis was only 2% in the cancers limited in the mucosa (m-cancer), but was 16% in the cancers invaded to the submucosa (sm-cancer). The invasion to the lymphcanal was seen in only sm-cancers (28%), and was dominant in the well differentiated type. The prognosis of the m-cancers was excellent, but that of the sm-cancers was not so good. In treating the sm-cancers, especially the protruded type, one should take care adequately as in treating the advanced cases.