Abstract

Various clinical and pathologic parameters in order to determine the prognosis of gastric carcinoma have been proposed. Among them "carcinoma with lymphoid stroma" has been proven to show good prognosis. But the criteria of lymphoid stroma in this condition remain vague and not clear. A total of 7 cases of gastric carcinoma with heavy lymphoid stromal response out of 947 surgically resected gastric carcinomas was reviwed with histotopographic analysis. They were all advanced carcinoma, Borrmann type I and II. Histologically, the lymphoid stromal response could be divided into three patterns; nodular (3 cases), diffuse (3 cases) and mixed (1 case). The nodular pattern was characterized by massive lymphoid cell infiltration with many follicle formation and little desmoplastic reaction, while the diffuse pattern showed diffuse permeative type of inflammatory cell infiltration with scarce lymphoid follicle formation and mild desmoplasia. Regional lymph node metastasis was found in 2 cases; one in diffused and another one in mixed pattern. The stromal reaction was not directly related with the depth of tumor invasion. We propoose that the term GCLS should be used in the cases of nodular pattern with complete follicle formation of lymphoid stroma.

• Keywords: Gastric carcinoma;lymphoid stroma;