[Clinical and pathological evaluation of patients with positive finding of cancer cells in the oral stump of the resected stomach].

Of 40 gastric cancer patients leaving cancer cells in the oral stump of the resected stomach, 30 died of recurrence of cancer within 2 years after surgery. In 16 of them, patterns of recurrence were ascertained by relaparotomy or autopsy. Furthermore, recurrent cancer in the gastric stump was found in 10 of these patients. As histological features of primary cancer in stump recurrence patients, sporadic infiltration in the gastric wall and invasion into the lymph vessels in the submucosa were indicated. In infiltrative cancer, therefore, it is important to perform intraoperative cytologic or histologic examination of the oral stump of the resected stomach.