title: Clinical significance of gastritis cystica profunda and its association with Epstein-Barr virus in gastric cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gastritis cystica profunda (GCP) is a relatively rare disorder characterized by hyperplastic and cystic down growth of gastric glands into the submucosa. In the current study, the authors attempted to clarify the clinical and pathologic features of GCP in patients with gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The records of 10,728 patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastric cancer surgery were reviewed. The clinicopathologic features of patients who had GCP (n = 161) were compared with the features of patients without GCP (n = 10,567). In situ hybridization to determine Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) positivity was performed in cancer tissues from patients with (n = 119) and without (n = 503) GCP.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GCP was associated significantly with older age, male gender, proximal tumor location, differentiated histology and Lauren intestinal type compared with non-GCP. GCP also was present more frequently in remnant and multiple gastric cancers. Patients who had GCP presented with earlier tumor stages in terms of depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis, and they had less lymphatic and perineural invasion than patients without GCP; however, the presence of GCP was not an independent prognostic factor. The EBV-positive rate was significantly higher in the GCP group (31.1%) than in the non-GCP group (5.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with gastric cancer who had GCP had clinicopathologic features that differed from the features observed in patients without GCP. GCP was associated significantly with EBV-positive gastric cancers, and its possible role as a premalignant lesion needs to be clarified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Gew
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Ji Yun
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Kyoung-Mee
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jae Moon
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Jae Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: Tae Sung
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Sung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005756:Gastritis / Q000821:virology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D012737:Sex Factors; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*