A Case of AFP-Producing Early Gastric Cancer with Metastasizing to the Liver

Abstract

A 61-year-old man underwent subtotal distal gastrectomy for early cancer of the angle and antrum of the stomach. Microscopically, both lesions invaded the submucosal layer. Serum AFP, which was normal preoperatively, increased remarkably along with the growth of multiple liver metastases after four months. Immunohistochemical AFP staining of the resected specimen of the stomach revealed positive cells, leading to the diagnosis of liver metastasis from AFP-producing gastric cancer with multiple early gastric cancer. Only eighteen cases of AFP-producing early gastric cancer have reported in Japan. About the half of them had been metastasized to the liver. Histopathologically, most cases were poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with medullary proliferation.