1988 Volume 30 Issue 11 Pages 2647-2651_1
A 62-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of gastric cancer. Initial examinations including X-ray and endoscopy with biopsy demonstrated a large, irregularly-shaped polypoid cancer on the anterior wall of the gastric body. Three weeks later, the repeated X-ray and endoscopic studies revealed that the polypoid part of the lesion had disappeared spontaneously and an irregularly-shaped flat sessile elevation remained. Biopsy specimens showed adenocarcinoma and total gastrectomy was performed. Pathological examination of the removed stomach revealed that the elevated lesion was well differentiated adenocarcinoma mostly restricted to the mucosa and partly invading the submucosa. There was an intense inflammatory infiltrate in and around the area of carcinoma, thereby suggesting that the protuberant part of the tumor was spontaneously fallen off. This is the very rare case of a large polypoid cancer of the stomach showing spontaneous dislodgment during the clinical course.
