Volume 65, Issue 1 pp. 90-99
Original Article

Does clear cell carcinoma of stomach exist? Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of clear cell changes in gastric adenocarcinomas

Joo-Yeon Kim

Joo-Yeon Kim

Department of Pathology, Pusan National University Hospital and Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea

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Do Youn Park

Corresponding Author

Do Youn Park

Department of Pathology, Pusan National University Hospital and Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea

Address for correspondence: D Y Park, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology, Pusan National University Hospital and Pusan National University School of Medicine, 1–10 Ami-Dong, Seo-Gu, Busan, 602–739, Korea. e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Gwang Ha Kim

Gwang Ha Kim

Department of Internal Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital and Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea

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Tae-Yong Jeon

Tae-Yong Jeon

Department of Surgery, Pusan National University Hospital and Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea

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Gregory Y Lauwers

Gregory Y Lauwers

Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

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First published: 20 January 2014
Citations: 8

Abstract

Aims

In contrast to clear cell carcinomas developing in other organs (e.g. ovary and uterus), gastric adenocarcinomas with clear cell features are not well characterized.

Methods and results

We evaluated a series of 762 gastric adenocarcinomas for the presence of clear cell changes; and investigated the nature of the changes using several histochemical and immunohistochemical markers, their association with various clinicopathological features, and their prognostic significance. Clear cell changes were observed in 8.5% (= 65) of gastric cancers. Cases with clear cell changes (GCC) were associated significantly with older age, intestinal type histology, body/fundic location, greater depth of invasion, lymph node metastases and lymphovascular invasion. An increasing proportion of clear cell changes indicated a worsening prognosis, and was identified as an independent marker of poor prognosis using the Cox proportional hazard model (hazard ratio, 0.462; = 0.003). Of 62 GCCs subjected to special staining, 35 cases (55.6%) displayed cytoplasmic accumulation of glycogen, while 21 (33.3%) contained mucin. GCCs showing glycogen accumulation expressed AFP, glypican-3 and CD10 more commonly than those with mucin, which commonly expressed Muc5AC and Muc6.

Conclusion

Clear cell gastric adenocarcinoma is a unique subgroup of gastric cancer which, although heterogeneous, has a poor prognosis.

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