[A patient with gastric small cell carcinoma who died from meningitis carcinomatosa after CDDP+CPT-11 chemotherapy with good response].

A-63-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of epigastralgia. On gastrointestinal fiberscopy, a complete obstruction of the pylorus was found, and endoscopic biopsy specimens from this region revealed gastric small cell carcinoma. CT scans showed the primary tumor at the pylorus with many regional lymph node metastases invading the pancreas. We performed gastrojejunostomy, followed by chemotherapy with irinotecan plus cisplatin (CDDP 30mg/m² and CPT-11 60mg/ m² on day 1 and 15). Three courses of treatment resulted in a marked reduction of both the primary tumor and regional lymph nodes. Subsequently, the patient underwent distal gastrectomy. Micro examination, revealed that the tumor had mostly changed to necrosis and fibrosis, and the pathological TNM grading was pT3 (SS) pN0M0, stage II A. Postoperatively, three courses of the same chemotherapy were performed. However, the patient died 5 months after the second operation, due to meningitis carcinomatosa without metastases of other organs.