A Case of Early Gastric Cancer of Adenosquamous Carcinoma

Gastric cancer is the most common malignancy in Korea. The most common cancers of the stomach are adenocarcinomas. Adenosquamous carcinoma of the stomach is very rare, constituting less than 0.1% of all the gastric cancers. Adenosquamous carcinoma is characterized by the presence of two different cell components, one adenomatous and the other squamous. It occurs more frequently in the upper stomach, and it sometimes invades the muscular layer. Adenosquamous carcinoma limited to the mucosa or submucosa is extremely rare and usually invades deeply into the muscular layer. Thus, it is found in an advanced stage at diagnosis and has a worse prognosis than adenocarcinoma. We report a case of early gastric cancer of adenosquamous carcinoma type on the basis of standard endoscopy in a 76-year-old woman. The patient received endoscopic submucosal dissection followed by subtotal gastrectomy to achieve complete resection. (Korean J Helicobacter Up Gastrointest Res 2014;14:207-210)