The difference in clinic-pathological features between signet ring cell carcinoma and gastric mucinous adenocarcinoma

We investigated the clinical and pathological features as well as the prognosis of signet ring cell carcinoma (SRC) and gastric mucinous carcinoma (GMC) to lay a foundation for the management of these two diseases. Two thousand four hundred thirty gastric cancer patients, including 288 SRCs and 80 GMCs who had received a gastrectomy between 1997 and 2007, were retrospectively evaluated. There were significant differences in tumor location, distant metastasis status, lymph node dissection, depth of invasion, Borrmann type, pTNM stage, and pathological lymph node status between SRCs and GMC (P = 0.001, 0.003, 0.01, 0.0002, 0.0013, 0.0001, and 0.265, respectively). After prognostic analysis, the cases with GMC received a relatively low 5-year specific survival rate compared to SRC (58.68 % vs. 66.25 %; P = 0.064). After Cox regression analysis, gender, age, lymph node metastatic ratio, pTNM stage, curative operation, and distant metastasis were identified as the independent prognostic factors in SRC. On the other hand, pTNM stage and distant metastasis were identified as the independent prognostic factors in GMC. In conclusion, the clinical and pathological features as well as prognosis of GMC and gastric SRC differed. Therefore, the treatment of the two diseases should be individualized.