title: Clinical and pathological evaluation of early cancer in the gastric cardia.
abstract: We report 9 rare cases (7 males and 2 females) of early gastric cancer of the esophagogastric junction. From 1976 to 1988, 1308 cases of gastric cancer were resected in our Institute. Of these, 479 (36.6%) cases were early gastric cancer. Among all 479 early gastric cancers, 9 (1.9%) were located within 2 cm of the esophagogastric junction on the lesser curvature and/or posterior wall of the cardia. This represents 11.7% (9/77) of the cases of cancer at the esophagogastric junction. This incidence contrasts with the 39.5% of early cancers elsewhere in the stomach. Overall, 36.6% (479/1308) were early gastric cancer. Eight of these 9 patients were resected through the abdominal approach and one by the thoracoabdominal approach. Seven underwent proximal and 2 underwent total gastrectomy. On microscopic examination, one cancer was m-cancer, and 8 were sm-cancer. Lymphnode metastasis was found to be absent in all 9 cases. The prognosis of cancer of the cardia is generally poorer than that for adenocarcinoma in the corpus or distal stomach. However, cancer recurrence 22-91 months postoperatively was zero in these 9 cases of early gastric cancer at the esophagogastric junction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koufuji
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuroiwa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kakegawa
mesh_terms: D002299:Cardia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors