A case of gastric linitis plastica with difficulty of pre-therapeutic diagnosis

Abstract

In the case of gastric cancers, it is essential to determine the extent and depth of the tumor accurately for deciding on courses of treatment. We have sometimes experienced the cases that pre-therapeutic diagnosis of those factors were difficult. In this report, we describe a case of gastric linitis plastica, which was diagnosed based on the ESD and additional surgical specimens.
The patient was 60 years old man. A depressed lesion was pointed out at the greater curvature of middle gastric body. Biopsy revealed pooly differentiated and signet ring cell adenocarcinoma. Using magnification and EUS, this lesion was diagnosed as intramucosal cancer and 20mm in size. After informed consent, ESD was performed and the lesion was resected in en bloc fashion. However pathological examination showed incomplete resection of margin positive in endoscopic specimen and isolated cancer cell remained in the muscle layer in surgical resected specimen.
Finally, this case was diagnosed of gastric linitis plastica based on the pathological examination.