OBJECTIVETo investigate the association between the morphological features of biopsy-diagnosed high grade intraepithelial neoplasia in the gastric mucosa and the postoperative pathology.

METHODSFifty-one patients with biopsy-diagnosed high grade intraepithelial neoplasia in the gastric mucosa were retrospectively analyzed. Thirty-three patients underwent surgery. The morphology of lesions under endoscopy and histopathological findings of the surgical specimens were investigated.

RESULTSOf the 51 patients, 43 had superficial lesions similar to early gastric cancer under endoscopy, 8 were similar to advanced carcinoma. In the 33 surgical cases, high grade intraepithelial neoplasia of gastric mucosa was confirmed on postoperative pathological examination in 13 (39.4%) patients, adenocarcinoma was identified in the remaining 20 patients (60.6%), including 14 early gastric cancers and 6 advanced carcinomas. Thirteen cases with high grade intraepithelial neoplasia confirmed postoperatively were superficial elevated or flat lesions less than 20 mm.

CONCLUSIONSPatients with biopsy-diagnosed high grade intraepithelial neoplasia in the gastric mucosa have a high risk of cancer. Thus aggressive follow-up and appropriate surgical interventions are recommended to avoid misdiagnosis.