Clinicopathological study of minute cancer of the stomach

Nineteen patients with solitary minute carcinoma (single cases) and 16 with foci of minute cancer, found as a component of multiple early gastric carcinoma (multiple cases) were studied. The results were as follows; 1) The histological type of the single cases was the differentiated type in 95%. 2) All lesions of the multiple cases were mucosal invasive carcinoma, while 16% of the single cases (3/19) had submucosal invasive carcinoma. 3) As for the distribution of the single and multiple cases according to the surrounding mucosal atrophy, the single eases were in the pyloric gland zone, the multiple cases in the intermediate zone.