Background. The clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of the primary gastric hepatoid adenocarcinomas still remain unclear. Methods. The authors evaluated 28 hepatoid adenocarcinomas (HC) of the stomach on the basis of characteristic histologic features resembling hepatocellular carcinoma, which were selected from the 7200 cases of primary gastric carcinoma in their files. Additionally, 22 alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP)‐positive adenocarcinomas without hepatoid features (APC) were also selected. Results. The HC cases fell into the following two groups: HC with AFP‐positive tumor cells (Group 1; 15 cases) and HC without AFP‐positive cells (Group 2; 13 cases). Histologically, the glycogen granules and hyaline globules were common features in HC. The incidence of a venous invasion of HC (Groups 1 and 2) was higher than that of APC (Group 3). There were no significant differences among the three groups regarding clinical features, macroscopic features, and the incidence of lymphatic permeation. An immunohistochemical study showed that HC had differentiation into various directions. As for the advanced carcinomas, the 5‐year survival rates of patients with HC (Groups 1 and 2) and those with APC (Group 3) were 11.9% (21.4%, 8.3%) and 38.2%, respectively. The prognosis of Group 1 was similar to that of Group 2, but was poorer than that of Group 3. Conclusions. The findings suggested that HC, as shown by its characteristic histologic features, had a poor prognosis whether producing AFP or not, and that HC should therefore be distinguished from AFP‐positive carcinoma without hepatoid features.

The clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features in 120 cases of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) were reviewed. Excluding 24 cases of gastric schwannoma, 96 cases of GIST consisting of 62 benign tumors and 34 sarcomas (low grade, 17; high grade, 17), with 9 cases arising in the esophagus, 57 in the stomach, 28 in the small intestine, and 2 in the colon, were studied. All esophagus and colon tumors were benign and resembled a conventional leiomyoma histologically. However, the gastric and small intestine benign tumors mostly showed histologic features of cellular or epithelioid leiomyoma. Immunohistochemically, desmin caused a positive reaction in all esophagus and colon tumors, but only 26% of gastric and small intestine tumors. However, muscle‐specific actin (HHF35) caused a positive reaction in most GIST (92%). The 10‐year survival rates of the patients with gastric sarcoma and those with intestinal sarcoma were 74% and 17%, respectively. These results showed that histologic and immunohistochemical features were distinctly different, depending on the location in the gastrointestinal tract; that most GIST, excluding schwannoma, had smooth muscle differentiation; and that sarcomas had a more favorable prognosis when they occurred in the stomach rather than the intestine. Cancer 1992; 69:947–955.

Background. Gastric carcinoma with lymphoid stroma (GCLS) has been reported to have a more favorable prognosis than ordinary gastric carcinoma, however, the precise mechanism of the pathogenesis for GCLS remains unclear. Methods. The authors analyzed 99 GCLS in 94 patients for Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) sequences using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in situ hybridization (ISH); these were compared with 42 ordinary gastric carcinomas. Results. Two series of PCR showed 81 (82%) and 46 (47%) of the 99 GCLS to have EBV sequences, which were significantly higher compared with ordinary gastric carcinoma (50% and 9.5%, respectively). With ISH using thymine‐thymine dimerized oligonucleotide probes corresponding to EBV‐encoded small RNA 1 (EBER1), 82 (83%) of 99 GCLS showed clear, intense hybridization signals localized over the nuclei of the tumor cells, in contrast to only 4 (9.5%) of 42 ordinary carcinomas (P < 0.001). A comparative morphologic analysis of EBER1‐positive and negative GCLS revealed that typical features of GCLS, such as mild cellular pleomorphism, rare mitoses, a marked degree of lymphoid stroma, and mild fibrosis, together with a lymphoid infiltration within the cancer cell nests were significantly more frequent in EBER1‐positive GCLS. Conclusions. More than 80% of GCLS were associated with EBV. The presence of EBV association in GCLS was characterized by the above morphologic features.

The liver is the organ most commonly injured during blunt abdominal trauma. As our society ages, emergency surgery for active elderly patients increases, but data on aggressive emergency hepatic resection remain scarce in the literature. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the elderly (70 years of age or older) can tolerate major liver injury and subsequent hepatic resection. We investigated 100 patients who were treated by an anatomic resection for severe blunt liver trauma (29 elderly patients who were 70 years of age or older and 71 young patients who were younger than 70 years of age) in a retrospective study. The elderly patients were more severely injured as demonstrated by a higher Injury Severity Score, a lower Glascow Coma Scale, and lower survival (80.3% vs. 65.5%; p < 0.05). The total number of associated injuries was greater in elderly patients. Motor vehicle accidents were responsible for 71.8% of the injuries in the young group, and the predominant mechanism in the elderly patients was also motor vehicle accidents (51.7%). The 71 anatomic hepatic resections performed on the young patients included right hemihepatectomy (n = 45), left lateral segment resection (n = 14), bisegmentectomy (n = 5), and others. The 29 anatomic hepatic resections performed for the elderly patients were right hemihepatectomy (n = 15), left lateral segment resection (n = 5), left hemihepatectomy (n = 4), and others. Pneumonia, subphrenic abscess, and urosepsis occurred at a significantly higher frequency in elderly patients than in young patients. Our data clearly indicated that (1) the mechanism of injury, grade of associated intraabdominal injuries, distribution of surgical procedures, and complications differ significantly between young and elderly patients; and (2) the survival rate (65.5%) in elderly patients may be sufficient to consider anatomic hepatic resection to be a useful, safe procedure.

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