Signet ring cell carcinoma of the stomach: A clinicopathological comparison with the other histological types

A retrospective analysis was carried out on 93 patients with signet ring ce ll carcinoma of the stomach operated on between 1985 and 1995, to review th e clinicopathologic characteristics from the database of gastric cancer at Sendai National Hospital. The results were compared with those for 590 pati ents with other ty pes of gastric carcinoma. Women were afflicted as common ly as men in the signet ring cell carcinoma group. These patients tended to be younger and to have larger tumors. The histological type was commonly s cirrhous and infiltrative. The survival of patients with signet ring cell c arcinoma was worse than that of patients with other ty pes of gastric cance r but the difference was not statistically significant. Patients with early signet ring cell carcinoma had a good prognosis, similar to that of the ot her groups. However, prognosis of patients with advanced signet ring cell c arcinoma was poor compared with patients with other types of this disease. In multivariate analysis, the statistical significant prognostic factors we re vascular microinvasion and tumor location. These findings suggest that s ignet ring cell carcinoma of the stomach should be regarded as a distinct t ype of gastric cancer.