Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2020; 8(6): 1164-1171
Published online Mar 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i6.1164
Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach: Thirteen case reports and review of literature
Zheng-Rong Zhang, Jian Wu, Han-Wen Li, Tao Wang
Zheng-Rong Zhang, Jian Wu, Han-Wen Li, Tao Wang, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241000, Anhui Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang ZR was a major contributor in acquiring the data, performing the literature search, and drafting the manuscript; Li HW and Wang T contributed to analysis of the data and preparation and revision of the manuscript; Wu J provided critical revision of the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent statement was obtained from the patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian Wu, BMed, Surgeon, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, 2 Zheshan West Road, Wuhu 241000, Anhui Province, China. wj4966@126.com
Received: December 23, 2019
Peer-review started: December 23, 2019
First decision: February 20, 2020
Revised: March 9, 2020
Accepted: March 14, 2020
Article in press: March 14, 2020
Published online: March 26, 2020
Processing time: 93 Days and 11.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The aim of the present study was to examine the clinical characteristics of hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach (HAS) and its diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

CASE SUMMARY

A retrospective analysis of 13 HAS cases was performed. The mean age of the 13 patients was 66.08 years, and 10 of the 13 patients were male. Prior to treatment, the alpha-fetoprotein levels in the serum were elevated in 7 patients, the tumour was located in the distal or gastric body in 11 patients, and the gastroscopy pathological results showed that 3 patients had poorly differentiated tumours and that 8 patients had moderately/poorly differentiated tumours. Abdominal CT scans showed local stomach wall thickening, and enlarged lymph nodes were visible around the stomach in 8 patients. Of the 13 patients, 11 underwent radical surgery. The clinical pathological staging was as follows: Stage II in 2 cases; stage III in 8 cases; and stage IV in 1 case. A total of 3 patients were lost to follow-up. Otherwise, as of the last follow-up, 3 patients had survived for 56 mo, and the other 7 patients failed to achieve long-term survival (survival period of 1-56 mo).

CONCLUSION

HAS is a special type of gastric cancer, and the prognosis of HAS has improved compared with past prognoses. Measurement of alpha-fetoprotein, early diagnosis, active surgical treatment, and application of new diagnostic and treatment techniques are conducive to improving the prognosis of HAS.

Keywords: Stomach cancer; Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach; Alpha-fetoprotein; Case report

Core tip: Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach (HAS) is a rare special type of gastric cancer that is prone to lymph node and liver metastases and has a poor prognosis. In the majority of HAS cases, the ability to produce the alpha-fetoprotein and the serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein may be elevated during the early stages. In this study, we evaluated the clinical data, pathological features, treatment results, and prognosis of HAS patients.