Gastric carcinoma 2. An analysis of morphological and prognostic parameters correlated to the classification proposed by Masson, Rember and Mulligan.

One-hundred and fifteen gastric adenocarcinomas were classified according to Mulligan and Rember into one of the following types: Intestinal cell carcinoma (IC), pyloro-cardiac gland carcinoma (PC), mucous cell carcinoma (MC) and unclassified. The tumour type was correlated to the growth pattern and inflammatory reaction at the margin of the tumour, invasion of the veins and nerve sheaths, Dukes' stage, intra- and extracellular mucous production, and occurrence of intestinal metaplasia in the non-tumour bearing parts of the gastric mucosa. MC was the only type of tumour producing the macroscopic picture "linitis plastica". PC was the type of tumour that dominated in the cardiac region. The following parameters showed no relation to tumour type: Sex and age, size of tumour, invasion of lymphatic vessels. This study suggests that the three types of tumour are different entities, MC being the most aggressive and IC the least aggressive of the types of tumour.