Neutral mucin content of gastric carcinomas as a diagnostic aid in the identification of secondary deposits.
A simple quantitative method used in conjunction with the diastase digestion-Alcian blue-PAS (D-AB-PAS) technique was employed in a retrospective study of 135 gastrectomy carcinomas, and in a range of 57 unrelated metastatic adenocarcinoma cases of confirmed origin, to determine what proportion of malignant cells/glands contained neutral mucin only, as against acidic mucin or mixtures of both acid and neutral types. Fifty of the gastrectomy cases (37%) showed a high neutral mucin content of 71% or more, this feature being more evident in the diffuse (D) type of tumour. The metastatic adenocarcinoma cases comprised 35 of non-gastric origin of which eight (23%) had a high neutral mucin content of 71% or more, compared to 10 out of 22 cases of gastric origin (45%) having a neutral mucin content of 71% or more. It was felt significant that seven out of these 10 gastric cases were of the D type of tumour. The secondary adenocarcinoma of uncertain (unconfirmed) origin contained a group of cases with deposits of probable gastric origin of which more than half showed a high proportion of cells which contained neutral mucin only. The helpfulness of these findings is discussed.
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000032:analysis* / Q000556:secondary; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D009077:Mucins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000032:analysis* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery
D009077:Mucins