Early gastric carcinoma with multiple endocrine cell micronests.

We report a case of early gastric carcinoma associated with multiple endocrine cell micronests detected in a 64-year-old Japanese man. The micronests were present in the deeper layer of the lamina propria mucosae, an area occupied by early gastric carcinoma involving the mucous membrane of the anterior wall of the gastric body. Histologic and immunohistochemical studies suggested that the micronests were produced by budding of the neoplastic argyrophil cells scattered within the malignant tubules of the carcinoma and may therefore represent another phenotype of this well-differentiated adenocarcinoma.