[Thirteen years' survival in a patient with isolated skin metastases of a gastric carcinoma. What kind of disease is that?].

Gastric adenocarcinoma is a high-lethality tumour and has a great tendency to recur. Liver and peritoneum are the places where the metastases are most frequently localised. We introduce the case of a woman diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma who showed isolated skin metastasis. There were an important number of recurrences (always in the skin). She was treated with radical surgery and later treated with different cytostatic schedules. The patient died 13 years after metastasis were diagnosed. With this case we wanted to pay attention to the role of the biologic prognostic factors of gastric carcinoma. The molecular biology of these tumours can explain the different evolution of the disease. Biologic prognostic factors can separate gastric carcinoma into different kinds of disease.