[Study of early gastric carcinoma from the standpoint of size].

1,112 cases of resected early gastric carcinoma without invasion beneath the propria muscularis were investigated for the location, gross findings and histological findings mainly from a standpoint of size. The incidence of intramucosal carcinomas was 92.7% in the size within 1 cm in diameter, 68.9% in 1 to 2.9 cm, 48.8% in 3 to 4.9 cm and 37.6% beyond 5 cm. Although the incidence of poorly-differentiated adenocarcinomas was 37.9% in the cases within 5 cm, the incidence in the cases beyond 5 cm was 50.8% (most of them consisted of signet-ring cell carcinoma). The larger the tumor size, the more the intestinal metaplastic type carcinomas decreased and the signet-ring cell carcinomas increased. It was suggested that the signet-ring cell carcinoma infiltrates in the propria mucosae for a long time compared with the other type carcinomas.