Early gastric stump cancer following distal gastrectomy

Background—Gastric stump cancer(GSC) is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, and consequently theprognosis is poor.
Aims—To investigate theclinicopathological characteristics of GSC at an early stage to assistin its identification, and thereby improve its prognosis.
Methods—Forty three patients withresected early GSC were compared with 156 patients with resectedprimary early cancer in the upper third of the stomach.
Results—Sixty five per cent (28/43)of the early GSC patients showed the elevated type endoscopically,although the frequency of the depressed type in GSC has tended toincrease in the past five years. This occurred in less than 26%(40/156) of the primary early cancers. Half of the early GSCs werelocated on the lesser curvature (47%), and revealed differentiatedadenocarcinoma (81%) histologically. The male:female ratio of earlyGSC cases was about 6:1, which was much higher than that in patientswith primary early cancer. The five year survival rates of patientswith early GSCs and early primary cancers were 84% and 95%,respectively. GSC had a favourable prognosis, if it was detected at anearly stage.
Conclusion—To detect early GSC, ourresults suggest that special attention should be given to elevated aswell as depressed lesions on the lesser curvature of the stomach,particularly in men, during endoscopic examinations.

Keywords:gastric stump cancer; early gastric cancer; prognosis; endoscopy