OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinicopathological characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of gastric hepatoid adenocarcinoma(HAS).

METHODSRetrospective analysis of clinicopathological data of 24 cases with gastric HAS diagnosed by surgery and pathology in Chinese PLA General Hospital from January 2013 to May 2016 were carried out. All the patients underwent preoperative serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), endoscopy and imaging examination (CT or B-mode ultrasonography), and those with elevated AFP were excluded from liver cancer, cirrhosis, endodermal sinus tumor and other diseases. The follow-up ended in June 2016 or the death of the patient. The survival was from the operation to the death of the patient or the end of follow-up.

RESULTSThere were a total of 24 cases with gastic HAS, accounting for 1.03%(24/2 326) of the total number of patients with gastric cancer diagnosed at the same time in our center. There were 19 males and 5 females, the ratio of male to female was 3.8:1.0, the mean age of the patients was 55.9 (31 to 72) years, and 2 of them had liver metastasis. The first symptom in 50% (12/24) patients was epigastric pain, in 25%(6/24) was abdominal distension with vomiting, and the rest included dysphagia (12.5%, 3/24), hematemesis (8.3%, 2/24) and melena (4.2%, 1/24). Preoperative serum levels of AFP and CEA were elevated in 10 (41.7%) and 5 patients (20.8%) respectively. All the patients underwent surgical treatment, including 23 cases with D2 radical resection of gastric cancer and R0 resection, and the other of palliative gastrojejunostomy. Lesions of HAS located in gastric antrum in 11 cases (45.8%), in cardia in 7 cases (29.2%), and in gastric body in 6 cases (25%). Tumor maximum diameter of 10 cases was larger than 5 cm, and the average diameter was 5.7(1.0 to 12.0) cm. Postoperative pathological TNM staging: stage I(b was in 1 cases, stage II( in 7 cases, stage III( in 14 cases, stage IIII( in 2 cases; lymph node metastasis in stage N1-3 in 20 cases (83.3%). Poorly-differentiated tumors were found in 21 cases (87.5%), and no well-differentiated tumors were found. There were 11 cases (45.8%) with formation of intravascular tumor thrombi. In immunohistochemistry, AFP positive expression was found in 11 cases(45.8%). Seventeen HAS cases (70.8%, 17/24) received postoperative SOX(oxaliplatin + S-1) or XELOX (oxaliplatin + capecitabine) as adjuvant chemotherapy, 5 cases postoperative immune therapy, and 2 cases postoperative traditional Chinese medicine. All the patients were followed up for 0.7 to 42.0 months (median 8 months). A total of 9 patients died, of whom, 1 case underwent gastrojejunostomy because of liver and peritoneal metastasis before operation, and died 20 days after surgery; 4 cases died of multiple liver metastases after 1.5 to 12.0 months with survival of 3 to 18 months; 3 cases presented local recurrence after 2 to 17 months with survival of 6 to 22 months; 1 cases had peritoneal metastasis after 12 month with survival of 26 months.

CONCLUSIONSHAS is a rare type of gastric cancer with poor prognosis. The diagnosis is mainly based on histopathology, and radical resection is the mainstay treatment.