Gastric carcinoma and intestinal metaplasia. Significance of types of intestinal metaplasia upon development of gastric carcinoma.

For clarifying significance of subtypes of intestinal metaplasia upon the development of stomach carcinoma, 34 stomachs surgically removed for mucosal carcinoma were morphologically studied. Intestinal metaplasia was divided into incomplete and complete types by alcian blue-PAS staining. The incomplete type has been understood as an immature stage of the development of the metaplasia as previously reported by us. In this, study, it was revealed that the incomplete type of metaplasia showed more dysplastic features than the complete type. Analysis of the metaplasia of the gastric mucosa surrounding cancer tissue revealed that well differentiated adenocarcinoma frequently came into contact with the incomplete type of metaplasia in small cancer, less than 1 cm. This relationship became less evident as carcinoma became larger. In poorly differentiated carcinoma, however, any correlations between types of metaplasia and size of cancer were not demonstrated. From these results, it was suggested that well differentiated adenocarcinoma arises from the incomplete type of metaplasia.