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Definition
Gastric cancer includes a variety of tumors that develop in the stomach. The vast majority of these tumors, more than 95 %, are from epithelial origin and are named as gastric carcinomas. There are also less frequent nonepithelial tumors in the stomach, including lymphomas, and mesenchymal tumors.
Characteristics
Carcinomas of the stomach are heterogeneous tumors from the morphologic standpoint. This heterogeneity is reflected in the histopathologic classifications of the tumors. The most common classifications are the Lauren classification and the World Health Organization (WHO) classification.
The Lauren classification recognizes two major types of gastric carcinomas, the “intestinal” and the “diffuse,” which display different clinicopathological characteristics and occur in different epidemiologic settings. Microscopically, the “intestinal”-type gastric carcinoma retains a glandular structure and cellular adhesion/polarity....
References
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Reis CA, David L, Correa P et al (1999) Intestinal metaplasia of human stomach displays distinct patterns of mucin (MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, and MUC6) expression. Cancer Res 59:1003–1007
Uemura N, Okamoto S, Yamamoto S et al (2001) Helicobacter pylori infection and the development of gastric cancer. N Engl J Med 345(11):784–789
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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Reis, C.A. (2015). Gastric Cancer. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_2329-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_2329-2
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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