Abstract
Gastric cancer occuring in identical twins are extremely rare. Reviewing the literatures, only 6 cases with gastric cancer in identical twins have been reported. This is the first case reported in Japan. Case 1. A 45-year-old businessman was admitted to the Yamaguchi University Hospital on July 5th in 1978. About a month prior to this admission, he noted hunger pain in epigastric region. After his subjective symptoms subsided, he underwent gastrof iberscopy which revealed a gastric cancer. X-ray examination of the upper G. I. series revealed irregular shaped shallow concavity, 20 × 1.7 cm in size, at the posterior side of the lower corpus. Endoscopic examination revealed a shallow reddish depeessed lesion without white coating and at the top of the converged mucosal folds showed stick-like swelling. The lesion was diagnosed as the II c type like advanced gastric cancer. Biopsy and resected specimen revealed signet ring cell carcinoma and well differentiated adenocarcinoma. Case 2. A 43-year-old businessman, the identical twin of the previously described patient, was accidentally found to have a shallow nishe, 2.0 × 2.0 cm in size, at the gastric angle through an examination of the gastric mass survey on December 18 th in 1975. Endoscopic examination revealed a shallow depressed lesion with central ulceration. Th lesion was considered to be II c + f type early gastric cancer. Biopsy specimen showed moderately and well differentiated adenocarcinoma. Resected specimen showed II c+ III type early gastric cancer.
