Clinicopathological features of advanced gastric cancer detected by periodic mass screening.

We have attempted to clarify the clinicopathologic features of advanced gastric cancers that were detected in periodic mass screening by comparing them with those of cancers detected by an initial mass screening. The macroscopic type of the cancers detected by periodic mass screening included Borrmann's type 3 in 47% of cases but was an unclassifiable type because of its resemblance to early cancer in gross appearance in another 47% of cases. The predominant histologic type of the cancers was found to be poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with scirrhous growth. From these results, advanced gastric cancers that resemble early cancers of the depressed type, in gross morphology, and which are histologically diagnosed as poorly differentiated scirrhous carcinoma, are assumed to be rapidly growing tumors. Therefore, some of the cases that have these characteristics may, in fact, represent early-phase scirrhous carcinoma, diffuse carcinoma classified as Borrmann's type 4, of the stomach.