Discrepancy between clinical and pathological lymph node evaluation in Epstein-Barr virus-associated gastric cancers.
We investigated the clinicopathological characteristics of EBV-associated gastric cancers among poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas. A total of 412 patients with poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma were studied for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection by in situ hybridization for EBV-encoded small RNA. EBV genomes were detected in the tumor cell nuclei of 83 gastric cancers (20.1%). Of these EBV-positive cancers, 60 were histologically classified as gastric carcinoma with lymphoid stroma. Comparing various clinicopathological data with EBV status in gastric cancers revealed a significantly large discrepancy between the clinical and pathological lymph node evaluation of the EBV-positive cancers as compared with that of EBV-negative cancers. These results indicated that a strong host immune reaction occurs in the regional lymph nodes of EBV-associated gastric cancers, and that surgeons should be warned against clinically overestimating the stage of EBV-associated gastric cancer.
Ojima
H
H
First Department of Surgery, Gunma University School of Medicine, Japan.
Fukuda
T
T
Nakajima
T
T
Takenoshita
S
S
Nagamachi
Y
Y
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary / Q000821:virology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human; D006801:Humans; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*