Spectrum of gastric neoplastic lesions: A Clinicopathological study in the region of North Karnataka

Aim: To know the incidence of various gastric neoplastic lesions and their clinical presentation, risk factors and histomorphology. Materials and Methods: Study included all histopathologically confirmed neoplastic lesions of stomach including both endoscopic biopsies and resected specimens, biopsies showing significant dysplasia and intraepithelial neoplasia without inflammatory changes. Results: Of the total 55 gastric specimens (44 endoscopic biopsies & 11 resected specimen), 50 cases were neoplastic (90.90%) and the remaining 5 cases (9.09%) showed intraepithelial neoplasia/dysplasia. Most common age group affected was 6th decade and men affected twice as common as women with M:F ratio being ~ 2:1. Most common presenting complaint was dyspepsia and abdominal pain. Most common site of gastric malignancy was pyloric antrum and least common site being greater & lesser curvatures. Most common growth pattern of gastric malignancies was 'ulcerative' and least being ‘polypoidal'. Adenocarcinoma (94%) was the most common malignancy followed by lymphoma (4%) and carcinoid (2%). The commonest site of adenocarcinoma was pyloric antrum (64%) followed by cardia (16%) and body (8%). The most common histological type was ‘intestinal type' (44.68%, 21 cases) and least common being ‘papillary type' (2%, 1 case). Conclusion: When compared with earlier studies, the incidence of adenocarcinoma in cardia and of signet ring cell carcinoma is on the rise. The present study is not free from limitations such as ‘false' positives, ‘fewer'number of biopsies from representative area and inadequate ‘follow up'.