title: Pregnancy associated with gastric carcinoma.
abstract: Gastric cancer during pregnancy is very rare. We present the case of a 32-year-old woman, gravida 1 para 0, who suffered from advanced gastric cancer during pregnancy. Although the clinical symptoms of the tumor were evident early in the third trimester, the tumor was not diagnosed until 7 days postpartum, when it was too far advanced for curative resection. Only palliative procedures were carried out. The woman died of the cancer less than 3 months postpartum. Early diagnosis of this disease entity is often difficult and a poor prognosis invariably ensures, unless obstetricians maintain a high level of awareness. In pregnant patients with eccentric symptoms of the gastrointestinal tract that persist beyond the second trimester, further endoscopic evaluation should be considered. Occult blood in stool concomitant with elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen concentration should be considered as an important indicator for thorough endoscopic investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taipei Municipal Women and Children's Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011252:Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy