Twenty-two metachronous multiple signet-ring cell carcinomas treated with repeated gastrectomies and repeated endoscopic mucosal resections: report of a case.

A 45-year-old Japanese woman underwent an endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) for early gastric cancer at the Cancer Institute Hospital in July 1996. The patient then underwent a distal gastrectomy in 2002 because of a new early gastric cancer and repeated EMR for a total of six early gastric cancers in 2007. Finally, a total gastrectomy was performed in February 2008. The pathological examination of the resected specimen indicated 14 synchronous multiple early gastric cancers. Although the incidence of multiple gastric cancers has been reported to range from 5% to 15%, there is usually only a double or triple lesion. Moreover, multiple gastric cancer is typically observed in male elderly patients as differentiated adenocarcinomas. The present case was a young female patient and all of the lesions were intramucosal signet-ring cell adenocarcinomas. The carcinogenetic mechanism in this case may therefore be different from that in typical multiple gastric cancers. A thorough preoperative examination and regular postoperative follow-up are therefore essential for detecting multiple gastric cancers in their early stages.